Intro:Today, we have an abundance of science and
technology. It seems that for many of the problems that we have as a
civilization, such as war, famine, hunger, pollution and disease. That
we can solve many of these concerns. In this series, we will dedicate
the learning of science and technology, to many of the potential benefits of technology. This includes how
these technologies can be misused in our civilization.

We
can already see the amount of landfills and pollution being caused by
different types of industrial activities, including the use of machinery
and technology. This includes many toxic chemicals, being produced daily. Many industrial chemicals, are not often correctly disposed. These chemicals are a hazard to the environment, including in landfills. In this book, we will talk about new and sustainable ways, to replace and phase out, many toxic and industrial chemicals.

With all of the technology that has been invented in our pasts, we must ask ourselves, is it possible to make our civilization, coexist with this planet.

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Chapter 1: Dyeing technology

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In
this chapter, we will explain the problem with many synthetic dyes out
on the market. For many of these toxic dyes that are listed, there is an
environmentally friendly alternative.

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Food Dyes Linked to Cancer, ADHD, Allergies

- ”Red 3 and Citrus Red 2 should be banned under the Delaney amendment,
because they caused cancer in rats (some uses were banned in 1990), as
should Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, which are tainted with
cancer-causing contaminants.

Red 40 is used mainly in junk foods. Linked to hyperactivity. Banned in Denmark,
Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Sweden being phased out in the entire EU. Made of petroleum and 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid.

Water
pollution due to effluents from textile dyeing industry is a
cause of serious concern. The techniques for detection of dyes
are cost intensive and futile because the dyes undergo chemical
changes under environmental conditions and the transformation
products may be more
toxic and carcinogenic than the parent molecule. Hence instead
of detecting each chemical individually it is advisable to study the
toxic effect of the effluents on various living organisms.

Various
techniques of toxicity and carcinogenicity measurements are discussed
in this review. Remediation using physical, chemical and
biological methods has also been critically reviewed.

http://www.ijpcbs.com/files/10-353.pdf

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How Food Companies Fool Consumers with Food Coloring Ingredients Made From Petrochemicals

You'll notice artificial colors in foods like blueberry muffins or
blueberry bagels, too. Read the ingredients on blueberry bagels at your
local grocery store next time, and you'll find that there are really no blueberries
but plenty of artificial blue and green colors to create the impression
of little blueberry bits. They can't even put blueberries in their
bagels. They have to trick you with artificial colors.
Do you know what liquid they're using to hold the color? Propylene
glycol -- the same chemical you put into your RV when you want to
winterize it. It is antifreeze. You're eating antifreeze and
petrochemicals -- and that's just the blueberry part. We haven't even
gotten to everything else, like refined sugars,
chemical preservatives and refined bleached white flour, which has
diabetes-causing contaminants. A blueberry bagel is no longer a
blueberry bagel. When you really understand what's in the foods, it's
mind blowing.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11042.cfm

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Pretty Scary: Heavy Metals in Face Paints

What We Found

For this report, the Campaign
for Safe Cosmetics sent 10 children's face paints to an independent lab
to test for heavy metals. Among our findings:

10 out of 10 children's face paints we tested contained low levels of lead, ranging from 0.05 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).

Most
likely the clothes you are wearing on you back and the ones you dress
your kids in have harmful toxins in them. The effects of these toxins on
your children can range from hyperactivity to hormone imbalances. - See
more at:
http://www.mygutsy.com/are-your-childs-clothes-toxic/#sthash.lp1FtYEF.dpuf

Most
likely the clothes you are wearing on you back and the ones you dress
your kids in have harmful toxins in them. The effects of these toxins on
your children can range from hyperactivity to hormone imbalances...

http://www.mygutsy.com/are-your-childs-clothes-toxic/

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The 6+ Synthetic Fabrics You Most Want to Avoid, and Why

Toxins in Your Textiles

Most synthetic fabrics, from towels to dress shirts to bed
linens, are treated with chemicals during and after processing.
These chemicals not only leach into the environment, leaving
an impact on groundwater, wildlife, air and soil, but they
also may be absorbed or inhaled directly.

• PFCs in "wrinkle-free" pants, often used
for school uniforms, may cause cancer, according to
the EPA.

• Acrylic fabrics are polycrylonitriles, which may be carcinogenic.

• Nylon and polyester are made from petrochemicals, whose
production creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that's
310 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

For half a
century, skin and chemicals have been interacting… creating problems
like infertility, respiratory diseases, contact dermatitis, and cancer. -

When toxins are absorbed through your skin — your largest
organ — they bypass yourliver, the organ responsible for removing
toxins.

You also may not realize that your skin keeps you healthy by venting toxins… up to a pound per day.

Petrochemical fibers restrict and suffocate your skin —
shutting down toxic release. Meanwhile, they contribute to your total
toxic burden and may become the "tipping point" for triggering the onset
of disease.

Two contributing factors are (1) toxic buildup in your
body and (2) multiple chemicals that interact together to create even
worse problems than the individual chemicals by themselves.

Skin rashes, nausea, fatigue, burning, itching, headaches,
and difficulty breathing are all associated with chemical sensitivity.
If you have mysterious health symptoms that you can't seem to get
control over, it's worth checking out whether your clothes could be the
problem.

Toxic chemicals in children's clothes, explained

A report
released this week by Greenpeace has detected a range of toxic
chemicals in children's clothing, made by various manufacturers around
the world. The environmental organization found the chemicals
in most of the 82 items of children's apparel that it tested, bought in
25 different countries and produced by 12 major brand names, including
from high-end retailers.

The CNN report October 2007 which Shana wrote about on Green Cotton,
revealed that new testing procedures (chemical burden testing) reveal
that young babies and children actually do have increased levels of
chemicals in their bloodstream and skin. Because clothing comes into
prolonged contact with one’s skin, toxic chemicals are often absorbed
into the skin, especially when one’s body is warm and skin pores have
opened to allow perspiration. We also know that some individuals have
what is known as chemical sensitivity, including when exposed to
garments of many types.

Vegetable-tanned leather
utilizes tannins found in vegetables, tree bark, and other naturally
plant-derived sources. These chemicals produce a soft brown leather that
is ideal for leather carving and stamping but is very unstable in
water. When bathed in hot water, vegetable-tanned leather will shrink
and harden drastically, which is why it was once used as both an early
form of plate armor as well as for book binding.

Synthetic-tanned leather,
on the other hand, uses aromatic polymers like Novolac, Neradol, and
Melamine. Invented during WWII, when vegetable tannins were being
rationed as part of the war effort, it's easy to spot this kind of
leather by its creamy white color.

Alum-tanned leather and Rawhide are
not generally considered "tanned materials" as they both turn putrid in
water. Alum leather is produced using aluminum salts mixed with natural
binding agents like flour or egg yolks. Far lighter color shades are
possible with Alum than vegetable tannins, though the resulting product
will be far less supple. Rawhide is created by simply scraping the skin,
soaking it in lime, and stretching it as it dries. The stiff, brittle
result is often employed in drum heads, shoelaces, and as doggie chew
toys.

Aldehyde-tanned leather
is the primary alternative to the most popular form of tanning, which
uses chromium, instead leveraging glutaraldehyde or oxazolidine. Like
synthetic-tanned leathers, Aldehyde leather is white in color. It is
also very water absorbent, soft, and can be machine washed, making them
perfect for use in chamois.

Chromium-tanned leather
is the most popular form of producing leather these days, and one of
the most noxious. It relies on a toxic slush of chromium salts and
tanning liquor to produce a supple and often light blue colored product.
The prepared hides are first pickled in a vat of chromium until the
material's pH drops to 2.8 - 3.2, then they're transferred to a
secondary vat filled with tanning liquor which penetrates the leather.
Once the liquor has been thoroughly and evenly absorbed, the pH of the
vat is increased to between 3.8 and 4.2. This fixes the tanning material
to the leather at a molecular level and helps reduce the amount of
shrinkage experienced when the leather is submerged in warm water.

We
need environmentally friendly paints, including dyes
used for clothing, pen ink, crayons, paint for vehicles, house paint
and food packaging. This includes any type of paint or dye
that you can think of.

Making Natural Dyes from Plants

Information on Natural Dyes

Native Plant Dyes

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/dyes.shtml

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We
already have enough organic plants in the world, to have an ecological
friendly version of dyeing. The problem is that many petrochemical
companies, want to make a profit, off of dyes that are harming the
environment.Often, many
times companies have requests to use certain dye colors, such as certain
neon colors, or glow in the dark chemicals, that we know have harmful chemicals in them.With new technology, we can make many colors before, without these harmful chemicals.We still have not properly tested many of these types of bio-synthetic chemicals, however.

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Waterless dyeing technology is the future (we hope!)

April 23, 2013
Dutch Company, DyeCoo, has launched a revolutionary dyeing
machine that uses supercritical carbon dioxide and not a single drop of
water. This new technology could not have been invented soon enough, as
every two years the textile industry uses the same amount of water
that’s in the Mediterranean Sea just to dye clothing. In fact, textile
dyeing and treatment are responsible for 17 to 20 percent of industrial
water pollution, according to the World Bank. This new dry dye method
uses 50% less energy and 50% fewer chemicals, to boot!
http://designtoimprovelife.dk/waterless-dyeing-dyecoo/
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Most of the discussion in sustainable textiles has centered around
the fibers—manufacturers making a switch to organic cotton, or creating
fabrics from natural, easily-renewable materials like bamboo or hemp.
But very little attention has been paid to the the dyeing process, which
can be a potentially devastating industry when it comes to chemicals,
waste, and water usage. AirDye, a new method created by Colorep
for dyeing textiles takes water almost out of the equation, using 90%
less water, but also reducing the emissions and energy used by 85%,
since extreme heat is needed to dry the textiles after they are soaked
in dye (and most fabrics then require a post-rinse and yet another dry
cycle).
AirDye's process begins with using all synthetic fibers
for its material, which can be made from recycled PET bottles. Using
dispersed dyes that are applied to a paper carrier, AirDye uses heat to
transfer the dyes from the paper to the surface of the textiles,
coloring it at the molecular level. All paper used is recycled, and dyes
are inert, meaning that they can go back to their original state and be
reused.

Many times we hear about people trying to reuse and recycle plastic bottles. With many concerns and reports about the toxins
in current plastic bottles on the market. We must be cautious of trying
to continue to produce and recycle toxic plastic. This includes toxic
bottles, being recycled in shirts made with plastic materials.When we recycle plastics that contain harmful
plasticizers, including chemicals such as BPA, this is harmful for the
environment. What the world needs, is a form of recyclable bioplastic.

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We
still need to be cautious, of trying to genetically modify algae and
bacteria, for dyes, including other items, such as genetically modified
food. Many of these genetically modified chemicals, have not been
properly tested. We must be cautious, of how different synthesized
chemicals, could interact with other synthetic chemicals, including
pesticides and organisms in the wild.

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Microalgae Dyes Make for Clothes That Change Colors as They're Worn

June 30, 2014

One Berlin-based design studio called Blond & Bieber (no reference to Justin) believes in the pigment power of microalgae. Co-founded by designers Essi Johanna Glomb and Rasa Weber, the studio is at the forefront of using different kinds of algae for fashion.
While the thought of wearing pond scum on your back isn't
particularly appealing (if you've even thought of it), Algaemy is using
European weeds to develop new types of microalgae prints. Their pigments
come in shades of blue, green-brown, and red from microalgae.
While microalgae has been used for nutrition, energy and oil production, and potentially for CO2 sequestration,
Glomb and Weber's design lab focuses on the maximizing microalgae’s
aesthetic potential. Recently nominated for a German Design Award,
they’re launching their first limited-edition shoes with Trippen at
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week this July in Berlin.

New nanomaterials inspired by bird feathers play with light to create color

May 13, 2015

Inspired
by the way iridescent bird feathers play with light, scientists have
created thin films of material in a wide range of pure colors—from red
to green—with hues determined by physical structure rather than
pigments.

Structural color arises from the interaction
of light with materials that have patterns on a minute scale, which
bend and reflect light to amplify some wavelengths and dampen others.
Melanosomes, tiny packets of melanin found in the feathers, skin and fur
of many animals, can produce structural color when packed into solid
layers, as they are in the feathers of some birds.

"We
synthesized and assembled nanoparticles of a synthetic version of
melanin to mimic the natural structures found in bird feathers," said
Nathan Gianneschi, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the
University of California, San Diego. "We want to understand how nature
uses materials like this, then to develop function that goes beyond what
is possible in nature." -

- The
qualities of the material contribute to its potential application. Pure
hue is a valuable trait in colorimetric sensors. And unlike
pigment-based paints or dyes, structural color won't fade. Polydopamine,
like melanin, absorbs UV light, so coatings made from polydopamine
could protect materials as well. Dopamine is also a biological molecule
used to transmit information in our brains, for example, and therefore
biodegradable.

"What has kept me fascinated for 15
years is the idea that one can generate colors across the rainbow
through slight (nanometer scale) changes in structure," said Shawkey
whose interests range from the physical mechanisms that produce colors
to how the structures grow in living organisms. "This idea of biomimicry
can help solve practical problems but also enables us to test the
mechanistic and developmental hypotheses we've proposed," he said.

Natural
melanosomes found in bird feathers vary in size and particularly shape,
forming rods and spheres that can be solid or hollow. The next step is
to vary the shapes of nanoparticles of polydopamine to mimic that
variety to experimentally test how size and shape influence the
particle's interactions with light, and therefore the color of the
material. Ultimately, the team hopes to generate a palette of
biocompatible, structural color...

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-nanomaterials-bird-feathers.html#jCp

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We must question if synthetic melanin nanoparticles, are able to biodegrade properly in the wild.

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Within colors of bees and butterflies, an optical engineer's dream is realized

May 15, 2015

Evolution has created in bees,
butterflies, and beetles something optical engineers have been
struggling to achieve for years—precisely organized biophotonic crystals
that can be used to improve solar cells, fiber-optic cables, and even
cosmetics and paints, a new Yale-led study has found.

The
Yale team used high-intensity X-rays at the Argonne National Laboratory
in Chicago to investigate color-producing nanostructures within
hair-like structures that cover some species of butterflies, weevils and
beetles, bees, and spiders and tarantulas. They found that the
architecture of these nanostructures are identical to chemical polymers
engineered by chemists and materials scientists, according to the report
published May 14 in the journal Nano Letters.

"These
biophotonic nanostructures have the same shapes commonly seen in blends
of large, synthetic, Lego-like molecules called block copolymers,
developed by chemists," said lead author Vinod Saranathan, former Yale
graduate student and now faculty member at Yale-NUS College in
Singapore.

These artificial nanostructures need to be
an order of magnitude larger—such as that found in the scales of beetles
and butterflies—in order to interfere with light and make saturated
colors. Engineers, chemists, and physicists currently find it difficult
to control the self-assembly of synthetic polymers to achieve the
desired shape of molecules over a large area, Saranathan said.

Engineers,
however, have had difficulty organizing these polymers in larger
structures that would make them commercially feasible.

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-bees-butterflies-optical.html#jCp

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Squid and zebrafish cells inspire camouflaging smart materials

May 2, 2012

Researchers from the University of Bristol
have created artificial muscles that can be transformed at the flick of
a switch to mimic the remarkable camouflaging abilities of organisms
such as squid and zebrafish.

August 27, 2012

Squid's
colorful, changeable skin enables the animal—and their close relatives,
cuttlefish and octopus—to display extraordinary camouflage, the speed
and diversity of which is unmatched in the animal kingdom.

But
how squid control their skin's iridescence, or light-reflecting
property, which is responsible for the animal's sparkly rainbow of
color, has been unknown.

In a new study, MBL (Marine
Biological Laboratory) researchers Paloma Gonzalez Bellido and Trevor
Wardill and their colleagues report that nerves in squid skin control
the animal's spectrum of shimmering hues—from red to blue—as well as
their speed of change. The work marks the first time neural control of
iridescence in an invertebrate species has been demonstrated.

December 21, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-nature-unique-birds-gray.html
Using
X-ray scattering at the ESRF facility in France to examine the blue and
white feathers of the Jay, researchers from the University of Sheffield
found that birds demonstrate a surprising level of control and
sophistication in producing colours.

Instead of simply
using dyes and pigments that would fade over time, the birds use
well-controlled changes to the nanostructure to create their vividly
coloured feathers - which are possibly used for Jays to recognise one
another. The Jay is able to pattern these different colours along an
individual feather barb - the equivalent of having many different
colours along a single human hair.

The Jay's feather,
which goes from ultra violet in colour through to blue and into white,
is made of a nanostructured spongy keratin material, exactly the same
kind of material human hair and fingernails are made from...

Dr
Parnell added: "This discovery means that in the future, we could
create long-lasting coloured coatings and materials synthetically. We
have discovered it is the way in which it is formed and the control of
this evolving nanostructure - by adjusting the size and density of the
holes in the spongy like structure - that determines what colour is
reflected.

"Current technology cannot make colour with
this level of control and precision - we still use dyes and pigments.
Now we've learnt how nature accomplishes it, we can start to develop new
materials such as clothes or paints using these nanostructuring
approaches. It would potentially mean that if we created a red jumper
using this method, it would retain its colour and never fade in the
wash."

The scientists that revealed the "world's first solar battery"
last year are now, following some modifications, reporting its first
significant performance milestone. The device essentially fits a battery
and solar cell into the one package, and has now been tested against
traditional lithium-iodine batteries, over which the researchers are
claiming energy savings of 20 percent.

It was last October that researchers at Ohio State University (OSU)
first detailed their patent-pending design for a dye-sensitized solar
cell also capable of storing its own power. With three electrodes rather
than the typical four, it featured a lithium plate base, two layers of
electrode separated by a thin sheet of porous carbon, and a titanium
gauze mesh that played host to a dye-sensitive titanium dioxide
photoelectrode.
The reasoning behind the porous nature of the
materials was to allow the battery's ions to oxidize into lithium
peroxide, which was in turn chemically decomposed into lithium ions and
stored as lithium metal. But the team has redesigned the battery so that
air no longer needs to pass through it in order to function.

Researchers show how natural materials can self-assemble into surfaces with stunning optical properties

September 15, 2015

The
tulip called Queen of the Night has a fitting name. Its petals are a
lush, deep purple that verges on black. An iridescent shimmer dances on
top of the nighttime hues, almost like moonlight glittering off regal
jewels.

Certain rainforest plants
in Malaysian demonstrate an even more striking color feature: Their
iridescent blue leaves turn green when dunked in water.

Both
the tulip's rainbow sparkle and the Malaysian plants' color change are
examples of structural color—an optical effect that is produced by a
physical structure, instead of a chemical pigment.

Now
researchers have shown how plant cellulose can self-assemble
into wrinkled surfaces that give rise to effects like iridescence and
color change. Their findings provide a foundation to understand
structural color in nature, as well as yield insights that could guide the
design of devices like optical humidity sensors. The researchers describe
their results in a paper in The Journa lof Chemical Physics.Starting with Twisting Cellulose

Cellulose
is one of the most abundant organic materials on Earth. It forms a key
part of the cell wall of green plants, where the cellulose fibers are
found in layers. The fibers in a single layer tend to align in a single
direction. However, when you move up or down a layer the axis of
orientation of the fibers can shift. If you imagined an arrow pointing
in the direction of the fiber alignment, it would often spin in a circle
as you moved through the layers of cellulose. This twisting pattern is
called a cholesteric phase, because it was first observed while studying
cholesterol molecules.

Scientists think that cellulose
twists mainly to provide strength. "The fibers reinforce in the
direction they are oriented," said Alejandro Rey, a chemical engineer at
McGill University in Montreal, Canada. "When the orientation rotates
you get multi-directional stiffness."

We see how we can now create a viable means, to have environmentally friendly types of technology, for the use in dyeing fabrics. In the next chapters, we would like to talk about new materials and fibers, that are now being invented.

We see the amount of news articles, that explain how certain plastics and synthetic fibers, have toxic chemicals in them.In
the 1990s I remember growing up in elementary school. I remember
different teachers, explaining how creating synthetic fabrics were good,
and could save the environment. Their reasons were that the use of
fossil fuel that was already in the ground, comes up from Earth
naturally. Many thought that we could make fossil fuel, to manufacture
many products. The thought behind using plastics, is that people thought
it could save many trees from being cut down for paper. This includes having to
use fertilizer and resources to farm natural fibers such as cotton.We
can see the problem when we use too much oil, including when too much
oil gets dispersed around the planet, in large amounts. A good example
would be the BP Oil spill disaster. Look at how many animals were
harmed in the BP Oil disaster. Yet we use that same exact substance for clothing, plastics,
food packaging and a majority of the plastics that have currently been
produced. Not to mention all of the dyes,
plasticizers, synthesizers and other chemicals found in clothing. Many of these chemicals, are harmful, toxic or increase the rate for cancer in different
individuals. Many people might even become resistant or 'immune' to many
of the toxins in these products. However, we cannot say the same for
all people, including children. Many question still, how different chemicals can
shorten the lifespan of an individual. Many people are concerned with the amount of plastic and synthetic fibers found in the environment and the oceans.We
need plastics, silicone including fibers that everyone in the
scientific
community could agree upon, that are non-toxic and could biodegrade
properly in the wilderness. With hazardous chemicals found in plastic,
such as BPA, many are concerned for animals that are
eating this type of plastic. There are dozens of other chemicals found
in different plastics
as well.The problem I have heard about this 15 years ago. Is that one day the government could just ban many types of synthetic fibers.This
would mean that many chemicals and materials could be banned. This
means that certain chemicals could have a clause in the law, to being
limited for authorized use, governmental use, research or medical. What
this would mean, is that many of these harmful chemicals that I have
been discussing in my previous blogs, would be banned.

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Ban on microbeads offers best chance to protect oceans, aquatic species

September 16, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microbeads-chance-oceans-aquatic-species.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
An
outright ban on the common use of plastic "microbeads" from products
that enter wastewater is the best way to protect water quality,
wildlife, and resources used by people, a group of conservation
scientists suggest in a new analysis.

These
microbeads are one part of the microplastic problem in oceans,
freshwater lakes and rivers, but are a special concern because in many
products they are literally designed to be flushed down the drain. And
even at conservative estimates, the collective total of microbeads being
produced today is enormous.

In an article just
published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology,
scientists from seven institutions say that nontoxic and biodegradable
alternatives exist for microbeads, which are used in hundreds of
products as abrasive scrubbers, ranging from face washes to toothpaste.
Around the size of a grain of sand, they can provide a gritty texture to
products where that is needed.

We
wanted to make a giant list of harmful chemicals that we thought should
be banned, yet we know that some chemicals are not that harmful, and
fall in between a fine line, of what we should do with them. This is a
very difficult subject, because the environment is at stake, including
technology and resources.We have come a long way, in the development of many synthetic fabrics and fibers.Many
types of synthetic fibers make it possible for lighter framed
technology in automobiles, over conventional metal frames. This includes tensile strength in
many fibers and alloys.Even
when new carbon fiber material came out on the market, and boasted
about being a new strong material. A few months later, a news article
came out, explaining how it is still toxic, and how they produce most of the
carbon fiber out on the market with fossil fuel.I
have heard of environmentally friendly ways of producing carbon fiber
for consumer products. I hear that it might be currently more expensive
than the way the current methods of how carbon fiber is produced.

Sea snails and abalone are guiding scientists in their search for
strong and lightweight armor. Others besides the military, will benefit from these new nanoscience
developments:
firefighters, police officers, and other emergency responders. Another
method for creating super strong materials uses tungsten, not carbon,
for the basic material.

Another new nano
-
Another
new armor is called "smart" body armor. It weaves thin pads or cloth
from fibers that can sense the impact of a bullet or shrapnel and
automatically stiffen. This material would be even more resistant to
penetration and less cumbersome than the ceramic-plate armor troops wear
now.

Concerns about biochemical-warfare have resulted
in exploration into nano-size umbrellas that open to seal the cloth's
pores, making it impervious to airborne chemicals and pathogens. That
would be much easier and
lighter than the current equipment required.

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Smart Material: Spider Silk

Spiders sprayed with carbon nanotubes spin superstrong webs

May 06, 2015

A team of researchers working in Italy has found
that simply spraying a spider with a carbon nanotube solution can cause
the spider to spin stronger webs. In their paper they have uploaded to
the preprint server arXiv, the team describes their experiments with
both graphene and nanotube solutions and what happened when they sprayed
it on ordinary spiders.

Spider signal threads reveal remote sensing design secrets

December 16, 2015

When you look
at a spider web in the garden, one thing is often noticeably absent:
the spider. This may be because it is lurking away from the web in a
'retreat', where it can monitor web vibrations through a proxy known as a
signal thread.

A new Oxford study published in Journal
of the Royal Society Interface looks in more detail at the composition
and structure of these signal threads, which spiders can use to tell
whether they've caught new prey.

Dr Beth Mortimer from the Oxford Silk Group, based in the Department of Zoology, spoke to Science Blog about the research.

In an ongoing effort to improve the performance of lithium-ion
batteries, scientists have looked to the techniques that snails use to
control the growth of their shells. This biological inspiration,
combined with a peptide found to bind very effectively with materials
used to make cathodes, has potential for making lighter and
longer-lasting batteries.

http://www.gizmag.com/lithium-ion-batteries-snail-shells/36045/

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Advanced composites may borrow designs from deep-sea shrimp

July 14, 2015

New research is revealing details about how the exoskeleton of a
certain type of deep-sea shrimp allows the animal to survive scalding
hot waters in hydrothermal vents thousands of feet under water.
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-advanced-composites-deep-sea-shrimp.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

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NASA tests foldable cloth heat shield in Mars entry simulation

October 6, 2015

As spacecraft for manned and planetary missions get larger, so do their heat shields – which are becoming very big indeed.
To avoid the day when the shield becomes too large for any existing or
planned launcher, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California is
developing the Adaptive Deployable Entry and Placement Technology
(ADEPT) heat shield, which uses carbon-fiber cloth and can be folded up
like an umbrella. The cloth heat shield recently completed tests that
simulated entering the Martian atmosphere.

Unique three-layered snail shell could lead to tougher body armor

February 1, 2010

They say life imitates art, but any scientist knows that the best designs imitate life. Researchers from the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) are drawing new biomimicry
inspiration for body armor design from a hardy ocean snail that boasts a
shell structure unlike anything else seen in nature... or in material
research labs.

Spider's silk has long been the strongest natural material known to man, prompting researchers to attempt to uncover its secrets so they can replicate its remarkable properties in man-made materials.
But scientists now have a new source of inspiration in the form of
limpet teeth, which are made of a material researchers say is
potentially stronger than spider silk, is comparable in strength to the
strongest commercial carbon fibers, and could one day be copied for use
in cars, boats and planes.

http://www.gizmag.com/limpet-teeth-strongest-natural-material/36162/

----------

Tiny diatoms boast enormous strength

February 8, 2016

Diatoms
are single-celled algae organisms, around 30 to 100 millionths of a
meter in diameter, that are ubiquitous throughout the oceans. These
creatures are encased within a hard shell shaped like a wide, flattened
cylinder—like a tambourine—that is made of silica. Researchers in the
lab of Julia Greer, professor of materials science and mechanics in
Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science, have recently
found that these shells have the highest specific strength—the strength
at which a structure breaks with respect to its density—of any known
biological material, including bone, antlers, and teeth.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-tiny-diatoms-enormous-strength.html

---------

Researchers look to the boxfish for new body armor materials

July 29th, 2015

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are
taking inspiration from nature in the search for new materials that
could one day be used to create more effective body armor. The study,
which was supported by the US Air Force, focuses on the unique structure
and strength of the hexagonally-scaled shell of the boxfish.

A team of MIT researchers has looked
closer than ever before at the unique shells of chitons, using X-rays
to discover their secrets. The results reveal a no-compromise setup
that provides the tiny sea creatures with both protection and optical
visibility. The findings could one day inspire man-made armor with
similar abilities.

For the new MIT study, the researchers
worked with a fascinating species of chiton known as Acanthopleura granulata. They have an appearance similar to the rocks amongst which
they're usually found, and are small at only a few inches in diameter.

The creatures have developed a ceramic
shell system that's not only flexible, being comprised of eight
overlapping plates, but also provides high levels of visibility, by
incorporating tiny eyes throughout. Unlike the vast majority of other
living creatures, the chiton's eyes aren't made from portein, but are
instead made up of the mineral aragonite – the same ceramic that
makes up the rest of its shell.
---------

Next-generation body armor could be based on ... sponges?

March 18, 2013

http://www.gizmag.com/sponge-spicule-armor/26700/

Sponges’ “skeletons” – their internal structural elements – are made
up of tiny interlinked needle-like structures known as spicules. These
are hard, prickly, flexible and lightweight. As a result, they offer
enough strength to provide structural support, while they bend to such
an extent that they’re difficult to cut. A team of researchers from
Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Max Planck
Institute for Polymer Research set out to develop a material with those
same qualities.
The nanoscale spicules they created incorporate a
mixture of the mineral calcite, and a protein found in siliceous sponges
known as silicatein-α. Each synthetic spicule is composed of a
multitude of calcite “nanobricks” stacked together brick chimney-style,
with a matrix of the stretchy protein holding them together.

--------------

Next generation armor inspired by animal scales

We've seen scientists examine everything from the structure of sea sponges to the clubbing ability of mantis shrimps
in the search for next generation lightweight armor systems.
Researchers at Northeastern University’s College of Engineering believe
that fish scales could hold the key to creating armor that's both
impervious and lightweight. They eventually aim to combine the
properties of fish, snake and butterfly scales into a single protective
armor system.

---------

Future soldiers may be wearing fish-inspired body armor

March 16, 2015

On most fish, their hard, overlapping scales provide considerable
protection against pokes and cuts. Because those independently-moving
scales are each attached to a flexible underlying skin, however, the
fish are still able to easily twist and turn their bodies. Scientists
from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and MIT are now
attempting to copy that structure, to develop flexible-yet-effective
armor for humans.

Fish's piranha-proof scales could lead to tough, flexible body armor

The Arapaima's "hard on the outside but pliable underneath"
strategy is employed by a number of organisms, that need to be agile
while remaining protected. Meyers believes the principle could find use
in flexible ceramics, that could in turn be applied not only to
soldiers' body armor, but also fuel cells, insulation or aerospace
technology.

Here's a question - if piranhas are so ferocious and will attack
anything, why aren't they the only fish in the Amazon? Well, in some
cases, it's because other fish possess bite-proof armor. The 300-pound
(136-kg) Arapaima is just such a fish. In the dry season, when water levels get low, Arapaima
are forced to share relatively small bodies of water with piranhas.
Their tough-but-flexible scales, however, allow them to remain unharmed.
A scientist from the University of California, San Diego is now taking a
closer look at those scales, with an eye towards applying their secrets
to human technology such as body armor.

------------

Super-tough glass based on mollusk shells

January 29, 2014

In the future, if you drop a glass on the floor and it doesn't break,
thank a mollusk. Inspired by shellfish, scientists at Montreal's McGill
University have devised a new process that drastically increases the
toughness of glass. When dropped, items made using the technology would
be more likely to deform than to shatter.

Tough-as-nails ceramic inspired by mother-of-pearl

Although you may know it simply as the shiny iridescent stuff on the inside of mollusk shells, mother-of-pearl (or nacre)
is a remarkable material. It allows those shells, which otherwise
consist almost entirely of brittle calcium carbonate, to stand up to the
abuses of life in the sea. Now, a team led by the Laboratoire de
Synthèse et Fonctionnalisation des Céramiques (CNRS) in Paris, has
copied the structure of nacre to create a ceramic material that's almost
10 times stronger than conventional ceramics.
Natural nacre consists of layers of microscopic
tablet-like blocks, that have wavy edges not unlike jig-saw puzzle
pieces. This means that when the material is subjected to mechanical
stress, any cracks that start to form in the boundary lines between the
tablets have to follow a very circuitous route. As a result, all but the
largest cracks simply just peter out.
Scientists at Montreal's McGill University recently created super-strong glass,
by etching nacre boundary line-like cracks in glass microscope slides.
The CNRS team, however, took a different approach with the ceramic.
They started with a ceramic powder, made up of
microscopic alumina platelets. That powder was suspended in water, and
the resulting solution was then frozen. The ice crystallization process
caused the platelets to self-assemble into stacks, the boundaries
between which were similar to the wavy boundaries between nacre tablets.
A high-temperature process was then used to increase the density of the
material, thus removing the water.
In lab tests of the resulting ceramic, it was found
that cracks had great difficulty spreading through it – as is the case
with real nacre.
Additionally, the scientists state that the process
should work with any type of ceramic powder (not just alumina), and it
should be easy to scale up to industrial production levels. Besides
simply making existing types of ceramic items stronger, the technology
could also allow them to stay at the same strength, but be made much
smaller.

-------

Study shows how calcium carbonate forms composites to make strong materials such as in shells and pearls

January 8, 2016

Seashells
and lobster claws are hard to break, but chalk is soft enough to draw
on sidewalks. Though all three are made of calcium carbonate crystals,
the hard materials include clumps of soft biological matter that make
them much stronger. A study today in Nature Communications reveals how
soft clumps get into crystals and endow them with remarkable strength.

Mantis shrimp may hold the secret to lighter, tougher body armors

June 9, 2012

The mantis shrimp is a fascinating creature that has the ability to
punch its prey into submission with a club that accelerates underwater
at around 10,400 g (102,000 m/s2). By studying the
secrets behind this formidable weapon, a Californian researcher hopes to
develop an innovative, hi-tech material that is one third the weight
and thickness of existing body armor.

http://www.gizmag.com/mantis-shrimp-body-armor/22873/

---------------

MIT breakthrough could lead to paper-thin bullet-proof armor

November 12, 2012

Scientists have theorized that paper-thin composite nanomaterials could
stop bullets just as effectively as heavy weight body armor, but
progress has been hampered by their inability to reliably test such
materials against projectile impacts. Researchers at MIT and Rice
University have developed a breakthrough stress-test that fires
microscopic glass beads at impact-absorbing material. Although the
projectiles are much smaller than a bullet, the experimental results
could be scaled up to predict how the material would stand up to larger
impacts.

Engineers create new nano-fiber tougher than Kevlar

December 7, 2010

A new high performance fiber that is better at absorbing energy without breaking than Kevlar has been created by the U.S Department of Defence.
While still under development, the material could be used in
bulletproof vests, parachutes, or in composite materials for vehicles,
airplanes and satellites in the future. The fiber has been engineered
from carbon nanotubes spun into a yarn and held together using a polymer. The resultant material is tough and strong while still remaining flexible.

Wood pulp extract stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar

The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a
US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals
(CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust.
Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon
fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high
strength, low weight products. In addition, the cost of CNCs is less
than ten percent of the cost of Kevlar fiber or carbon fiber. These
qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in
lightweight armor and ballistic glass (CNCs are transparent), as well as
companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, consumer products,
and medical industries.

-----------------

Graphene could find use in lightweight ballistic body armor

December 1st, 2014

While graphene
is already known for being the world's strongest material, most studies
have focused on its tensile strength – that's the maximum stress that
it can withstand while being pulled or stretched, before failing.
According to studies conducted at Houston's Rice University, however,
its ability to absorb sudden impacts hadn't previously been thoroughly
explored. As it turns out, the material is 10 times better than steel at
dissipating kinetic energy. That could make it an excellent choice for
lightweight ballistic body armor.

Carbyne is stronger than any known material

August 20, 2013

A paper on Arxiv presents a detailed look at the properties of carbyne,
stronger than graphene and diamond, a true supermaterial. The paper is
titled, "Carbyne from first principles: Chain of C atoms, a nanorod or a
nanorope?" Authors are Mingjie Liu, Vasilii I. Artyukhov, Hoonkyung
Lee, Fangbo Xu, and Boris I. Yakobson, from Rice University, in Houston,
from the departments of mechanical engineering and materials science,
chemistry, and the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and
Technology. They have calculated the properties of carbyne. Described as
a chain of carbon atoms that are linked by alternate triple and single
bonds or by consecutive double bonds, carbyne is of special interest,
chemists find, because it is stronger, and stiffer than anything that
they have seen before. The discovery of carbyne is not entirely new.
Explorations of carbyne have their own history.

http://phys.org/news/2013-08-carbyne-stronger-material.html

------------------

DARPA seeks high-tech alternatives to armor

August 20, 2014

As a quick visit to any armored division will make obvious, tanks are
big ... really big. A Challenger 2 main battle tank, for example, weighs
62.5 tonnes (68.9 tons) and costs about £4.2 million (US$7 million).
And as anti-tank weapons get better, tanks can only get bigger. To avoid
armies of tomorrow having to pay for land-going battleships, DARPA’s
Ground X-Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) program aims at developing lighter,
more agile successors to the tank that protect themselves with more than
ever-thicker walls of steel.

http://www.gizmag.com/darpa-gxv-t-tank-armor/33404/

----------------

Liquid metal could be used to create morphing electronics

September 21, 2014

http://www.gizmag.com/liquid-metal-morphing-electronics/33836/

Who could forget the scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day
where the shape-shifting T-1000 reassembles itself from thousands of
blobs of molten metal? Researchers from North Carolina State University
(NCSU) have taken the first steps to such science fiction becoming
reality by developing a way to control the surface tension of liquid
metals with the application of very low voltages. This may offer
opportunities in a new field of morphing electronic circuits, self-healing electronics, or – one day – maybe even self-assembling terminator-style robots.

The liquid metal used by the researchers was an alloy
of gallium and indium. Gallium is liquid just above room temperature at
about 29° C (84° F), while Indium has a much higher melting point at
around 156° C (312° F), yet when mixed together, they form an alloy that
is liquid at room temperature. In other words, a eutectic
alloy – one that is composed of metals with disparate melting points
that, when combined, melt as a whole at a specific temperature.

Another important aspect of this eutectic alloy, and
one that the researchers sought to exploit in their experiments, is its
exceptionally high surface tension of approximately 500 millinewtons per
meter (mN/m). The consequence of this is that a blob of this alloy
resting on a surface will tend to form an almost spherical ball and hold
its shape if undisturbed...

--------------

Squid inspires camouflaging smart materials

June 15, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-squid-camouflaging-smart-materials.html

Three
prototype artificial cephalopod chromatophores are shown in unactuated
states. The chromatophores are made from dielectric elastomer using tape
coated with black carbon grease electrodes.

- The
researchers have shown the artificial skin, made from electroactive
dielectric elastomer, a soft, compliant smart material, can effectively
copy the action of biological chromatophores. Chromatophores are small
pigmented cells embedded on cephalopods skin which can expand and
contract and that work together to change skin colour and texture.

The
system achieves the dynamic pattern generation by using simple local
rules in the artificial chromatophore cells, so that they can sense
their surroundings and manipulate their change. By modelling sets of
artificial chromatophores in linear arrays of cells, the researchers
explored whether the system was capable of producing a variety of
patterns...

----

Bacterial Armor Holds Clues for Self-Assembling Nanostructures

February 11, 2015

Imagine thousands of copies of a single protein organizing into a coat of
chainmail armor that protects the wearer from harsh and ever-changing
environmental conditions. That is the case for many microorganisms. In a
new study, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have uncovered key
details in this natural process that can be used for the self-assembly
of nanomaterials into complex two- and three-dimensional structures.

Caroline Ajo-Franklin, a chemist and synthetic biologist at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry,
led this study in which high-throughput light scattering measurements
were used to investigate the self-assembly of 2D nanosheets from a
common bacterial surface layer (S-layer) protein. This protein, called
“SbpA,” forms the protective armor for Lysinibacillus sphaericus, a
soil bacterium used as a toxin to control mosquitoes. Their
investigation revealed that calcium ions play a key role in how this
armor assembles. Two key roles actually.
“Calcium ions not only trigger the folding of the protein into the
correct shape for nanosheet formation, but also serve to bind the
nanosheets together,” Ajo-Franklin says. “By establishing and using
light scattering as a proxy for SbpA nanosheet formation, we were able
to determine how varying the concentrations of calcium ions and SbpA
affects the size and shape of the S-layer armor.”

Hypersonic Vibrations of Ag@SiO2 (Cubic Core)−Shell Nanospheres

Liquid Armor

Liquid Armor

2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6md1wgyo3Ik

-----

How Liquid Body Armor Works

http://science.howstuffworks.com/liquid-body-armor1.htm

- The fluid used in body
armor is made of silica particles suspended in polyethylene glycol.
Silica is a component of sand and quartz, and polyethylene glycol is a
polymer commonly used in laxatives and lubricants. The silica particles
are only a few nanometers in diameter, so many reports describe this
fluid as a form of nanotechnology.

To make liquid body
armor using shear-thickening fluid, researchers first dilute the fluid
in ethanol. They saturate the Kevlar with the diluted fluid and place it
in an oven to evaporate the ethanol. The STF then permeates the Kevlar,
and the Kevlar strands hold the particle-filled fluid in place. When an
object strikes or stabs the Kevlar, the fluid immediately hardens,
making the Kevlar stronger.

- Other Uses for MR Fluids
MR fluids have numerous uses besides strengthening body armor.
Their ability to change from liquids to semisolids almost instantly
makes them useful for dampening impacts and vibrations in items like:

Since
it can instantly and reversibly change shape, it could also be used to
create scrolling Braille displays or reconfigurable molds.

---------------------

With
this new technology. It would be interesting to be able to harness
energy from this device. This material could also be added to deflect
certain types of lazers, including frequencies that could be blocked out
by this technology.

Quantum Stealth material designed to make target invisible

December 16, 2012

Scientists are exploring better methods of camouflage, a so-called
scientific invisibility cloak, and news has spread fast about a Canadian
company with substantial claims on how far they have come with
camouflage technology. The company, HyperStealth Biotechnology, has
developed Quantum Stealth camouflage material, which renders its wearers
invisible by bending light waves around them. Their work has obvious
implications for the defense industry. How can the enemy hit targets
they cannot see or defend themselves from attackers who are invisible?
Theoretically, any soldier could put on the material and get it working
with no power source required.

http://phys.org/news/2012-12-quantum-stealth-material-invisible.html

---------------------

With
new advances in armor technology, we are able to make tanks do many
different tasks, that were not possible before. This includes advanced
mine sweeping tanks, to the tanks such as the Crusher.

-------

Chobham armour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chobham_armour

---The
problem is when you release a synthetic compound in the environment. Is
that so many natural elements react with these synthetic compounds
differently. It would take years of research to find out many of these
different natural compounds would react, when introduced to
synthetic fibers. This also includes other synthetic compounds, such as
pesticides and genetically modified organisms. This is why I have stated
that we need to take a step back for a moment on much of the genetic
modification being done in food. This also includes other nano and
bio-technology research in all fields of genetic modification.

----------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 3: Sustainable materials & fibers

----------------
----------------

---------------------

When
we see many of the toxins, in everyday consumer items. Currently, many
plastics out on the market, including synthetic fibers, have problems
coexisting and biodegrading properly, in the wilderness.

This
is why we need sustainable sources, in order to create sustainable
materials. Materials that can be used in clothing, shoes, fibers,
plastics, including any material for consumer items.

We can make organic linen from flax, including hemp for fiber.We can create tencel fiber, for clothing, from
birch trees, including eucalyptus trees. It is debated, the impact that
many types of tencel, including plastics made from plant material, could
have on the environment. Many question if there is a more
environmentally friendly version of tencel. We
are already putting a lot of stress on many of the forests of the
world, for
harvesting resources. Whenever we harvest too many resources from the
environment, it can cause problems.There is a sustainable way, to
harvest trees from the forests. However, currently tree harvesting
around the world, has been causing problems, with different habitats.We can even use banana fiber, including coconut fiber, for making clothing.

We can even use grass, as a sustainable source for making baskets. An example would be alaffia grass baskets.Cork leather, including seaweed leather, could
be sustainable materials, for mass-producing materials used for clothing
and fibers.Many endangered
animals are often killed, or mistakenly hunted, just to make fur and
leather, from endangered or rare animals.This is why many think we need to limit different animal
products, including leather, and replace them with plant fibers such as
hemp, including kelp fiber.

Many say that silk, is also a sustainable fiber. Some groups debate the ethical standards, in some ways that some silk is harvested.
It
is debated if we should use animal leather by many. I believe that leather from animals, should be used for limited items.
When Natives would harvest a deer, they could make goods out of
the leather and bones. It would be considered a waste, if you did not use all of the animal, for survival. Leather biodegrades and does not harm the environment.We should stop mass-producing leather so much, by killing too many animals. Many
people think that it has become an excess, of the amount of animals
that are being harvested and being killed, just for their fur or
leather. Many people these days want to wear leather, just to avoid synthetic fibers.Current artificial leather on the market, contains harmful chemicals. This includes PVC leather.Even
if we make an eco-friendly version of leather, such as seaweed leather.
We must question the types of chemicals going into these materials, to
make these types of human-made materials.

---------------

Dutch Students Make Leather from Fruit Waste

September 1, 2015

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/leather-fruit-waste/#.Ve-t05e-2zk

They developed a method to produce a new material from the fruit and vegetable left-overs. As the name of the initiative suggests, the new material is called “fruit leather“, and it is created by processing spoiled biological plant waste. This new type of vegan leather
can be used to make all sorts of products, from handbags to furniture,
and it can potentially have the same quality as its animal ancestor
after a few more improvements are made.

The young designers have
not yet released their precise method, I am guessing because of a patent
or a possibility for commercializing the product, but in general it
involves cleaning, mashing, boiling and then drying of the waste.

---------------

As a researcher, I even see the problems in many clothing out on the market.Even
many types of clothing, that's labeled as organic, is not fully
organic, or biodegradable. Many shirts labeled as organic cotton, still
contain synthetic dyes on the organic cotton, including synthetic poly
material used for stitching, including the printed images on the shirt. Kapok is another good natural fiber that can be used for certain applications that cotton can be used for.This is why when searching
for organic clothing. The best quality grades of clothing, is the type
of organic fabric that is used. The type of organic dye that is used.
This includes the type of organic stitching that is used. Even the grade
of metal or material ( coconut buttons, wood buttons, stones, bone, etc ), that is used for
making buttons.

We need to make all clothing non-toxic for humans,
including on how this material biodegrades in the environment. No one should have the chance to harm
themselves, just from putting on an article of clothing. Everyone has the right to wear non-toxic clothing.

==================================

Making clothes out of gelatin could reduce agricultural waste

June 24, 2015

From
gummy bears to silky mousses, gelatin is essential for making some of
our favorite sweets. Now scientists are exploring another use for the
common food ingredient: spinning it into yarn so it can be made into
clothing. And because gelatin comes from livestock by-products, the new
technique would provide an additional use for agricultural leftovers.
The report appears in the ACS journal Biomacromolecules.

More
than a century ago, the textile industry started using protein fibers
from animals and vegetables such as casein from milk and zein from corn
to make new kinds of fabrics. But synthetic fibers derived from
petroleum products boomed and quickly eclipsed those efforts. Now, as
consumers search for "greener" products, scientists have revived the
idea of making fabrics from animal and plant proteins. Wendelin J. Stark
and colleagues decided to try spinning yarn out of gelatin, which comes
from collagen, an abundant protein in livestock by-products.

The researchers spun filaments of gelatin, twisted them into a yarn and then treated it with gaseousformaldehyde
and lanolin (wool grease) to make it water-resistant. The resulting
yarn was about as strong as a strand of merino wool. It was also just as
warm when knitted into a glove.

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-gelatin-agricultural.html#jCp

------------

With
genetically modified soybeans in the industry, from companies such as
Monsanto. These companies try to use this technology, to create plastics, including
bacteria from soy.Some think that it is not ethical, to use bacteria made from genetically modified soy, to make clothing for people. The main reason, is that the scientific community believes that these versions of GMO soy plants, were not properly tested in the environment. This also includes using different bacteria, including genetically modified bacteria, for the use in clothing.

--------

MIT group explores bacteria use for comfort wear

October 30, 2015

Now
they are using the bacteria in a new way—it becomes a nanoactuator that
expands and shrinks based on atmospheric moisture or the sweat of the
skin. As Gizmodo wrote, the team was interested in the possibilities:
"if natto's expansion and contraction could be carefully calibrated,
perhaps it could act more like a machine than an unpredictable organism.
Perhaps it could act more like an actuator."
The team said, "We
introduce a specific type of living cells as nanoactuators that react to
body temperature and humidity change. The living nanoactuator can be
controlled by electrical signal and communicate with the virtual world
as well." A digital printing system and design simulation software were
developed too.

I remember growing up. I remember someone mentioning on the radio,
how part of the government mentioned, that they wanted to ban many types
of plastics, nylons and synthetic chemicals. This would include devices
that emit extra carbon. This was mentioned in the 1990s. The person
that mentioned this on the radio, sounded somewhat upset about this.
They made it sound like, the government was going to shutdown a lot of
fun activities.This would include anything from many types of cars, and vehicles.If
we had vehicles, including underground trains that ran off of hydrogen or sustainable energy, and had organic and
biodegradable frames, including bio-polymers, we could have sustainable vehicles. When we see the amount
of vehicles in the world, cars, boats planes, we can see that this is a
lot of fiberglass and plastic that we have introduced into this world.

-----------

What do we do about many chemicals used in industrial products.Many current technologies in consumer items, rely on synthetic materials, for performance.For
example, everything from fiberglass for better performance in cars,
boats and motorcycles. This creates a lighter vehicle over stainless
steel. However, we know that fiberglass is harmful for the environment,
including the people working on manufacturing of the fiberglass. It
appears that even handling fiberglass, could cause harm, over extended
periods of time.What we need, is something
similar to an organic orgonite compound, for making types of
fiberglass. What we would need to make sure, is that we could make an
environmentally friendly epoxy, including bio-based poly materials, for
constructing materials similar to fiberglass. There could even be better
methods of making materials, than known to the public currently.

------------

A better board: Glassing with a Bio-Based Epoxy Resin

How to Make Orgonite

http://www.orgonite.info/how-to-make-orgonite.html

Basic orgonite is simply fiberglass resin, metal shavings and a quartz
crystal, cured in any mold you like. There's no one "right" shape or
size for orgonite, and its range of effect seems to scale linearly with
volume, but there are specific, time-tested, widely-used and
repeatedly-confirmed effective designs for both personal and field
devices which have grown and continue to grow out of the steadfast work
of talented and dedicated gifters from around the world.

---------------

With new technology, we are able to make alloys stronger, and lighter.

--------------

New high-volume joining process expands use of aluminum in autos

May 12, 2015

Researchers have demonstrated a new process for the
expanded use of lightweight aluminum in cars and trucks at the speed,
scale, quality and consistency required by the auto industry. The
process reduces production time and costs while yielding strong and
lightweight parts, for example delivering a car door that is 62 percent
lighter and 25 percent cheaper than that produced with today's
manufacturing methods.

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-high-volume-aluminum-autos.html#jCp

----------------------

Exceptionally strong and lightweight new metal created

December 23, 2015

A team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has created a
super-strong yet light structural metal with extremely high specific
strength and modulus, or stiffness-to-weight ratio. The new metal is
composed of magnesium infused with a dense and even dispersal of ceramic
silicon carbide nanoparticles. It could be used to make lighter
airplanes, spacecraft, and cars, helping to improve fuel efficiency, as
well as in mobile electronics and biomedical devices.

A metal composite that will (literally) float your boat

May 12, 2015

Researchers have demonstrated a new metal matrix composite that
is so light that it can float on water. A boat made of such lightweight
composites will not sink despite damage to its structure. The new
material also promises to improve automotive fuel economy because it
combines light weight with heat resistance. http://phys.org/news/2015-05-metal-composite-literally-boat.html#jCp

--------------

We need to be certain that we do not add more hazardous chemicals, into the environment.

----------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 4: Sustainable Paints & coatings

----------------
----------------

---------------------

We
often look at many paints and powder coatings on the market. The people
want a sustainable way, that we can use paints, including coatings for
vehicles, tools, machines, medical applications, to everyday uses. When
we look at natural coatings, such as crystalline coatings, to patinas.
We can see, that we can look at nature, to make better and more
sustainable coatings and finishes, for everyday items.

-----------------------

Patina

Patina is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of stone; on copper, bronze and similar metals (tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes); on wooden furniture
(sheen produced by age, wear, and polishing); or any such acquired
change of a surface through age and exposure. Patinas can provide a
protective covering to materials that would otherwise be damaged by
corrosion or weathering. They may also be aesthetically appealing.

On metal, patina is a coating of various chemical compounds such as oxides, carbonates, sulfides, or sulfates formed on the surface during exposure to atmospheric elements (oxygen, rain, acid rain, carbon dioxide, sulfur-bearing
compounds), a common example of which is rust which forms on iron or
steel when exposed to oxygen. Patina also refers to accumulated changes
in surface texture and colour that result from normal use of an object
such as a coin or a piece of furniture over time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patina

------------

Many firearms with a thin layer of green
patina, are often considered highly valuable, if the firearm still is in
good condition. The reason for this, is that the firearm can last for a
very long
time, once a layer of green patina collects on a firearm. This means
that the firearm could be preserved for many hundreds of years, with the
patina now protecting the metal from accelerated rust. Some question if we could improve this type of
natural technology, for certain types of natural finishes for paints and
powder coatings.

----------------

Copper in architecture

Most
of the world's electricity-producing power plants—whether powered by
coal, natural gas, or nuclear fission—make electricity by generating
steam that turns a turbine. That steam then is condensed back to water,
and the cycle begins again.

But the condensers that
collect the steam are quite inefficient, and improving them could make a
big difference in overall power plant efficiency.

Now,
a team of researchers at MIT has developed a way of coating these
condenser surfaces with a layer of graphene, just one atom thick, and
found that this can improve the rate of heat transfer by a factor of
four—and potentially even more than that, with further work. And unlike
polymer coatings, the graphene coatings have proven to be highly durable
in laboratory tests.

Graphene used to rust-proof steel

May 29, 2012

Hexavalent chromium compounds are a key ingredient in coatings used to
rust-proof steel. They also happen to be carcinogenic. Researchers,
therefore, have been looking for non-toxic alternatives that could be
used to keep steel items from corroding. Recently, scientists from the
University at Buffalo announced that they have developed such a
substance. It’s a varnish that incorporates graphene, the one-atom-thick
carbon sheeting material that is the thinnest and strongest substance
known to exist.

Slick coating keeps steel clean and tough

October 21, 2015

When liquids stick to steel for long enough, the steel corrodes or
becomes contaminated. Unfortunately, however, porous surface coatings
that repel liquids also tend to make steel weaker … until now, that is.
Scientists at Harvard University have recently discovered that their
existing SLIPS (Slippery Liquid Porous Surfaces) technology not only causes liquids to roll right off, but it actually makes steel stronger.

Led by Prof. Joanna Aizenberg, the Harvard team
utilized electrochemical deposition to apply a a surface coating of
rough nanoporous tungsten oxide to small sheets of steel. This coating
took the form of an utra-thin film, actually made up of hundreds of
thousands of separate microscopic tungsten oxide "islands." The
resulting surace roughness keeps liquid from sticking to the steel.
Additionally, because they're not connected to one
another, if any of the islands are damaged by abrasion to the film, that
damage stays localized instead of affecting the whole coating.

A team of theoretical physicists from the US Department of Energy’s
(DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University is
predicting that stanene, a single layer of tin atoms laid out in a
two-dimensional structure, could conduct electricity with one hundred
percent efficiency at room temperature. If the findings are confirmed
they could pave the way for building computer chips that are faster,
consume less power, and won't heat up nearly as much.
Stanene is an example of a topological insulator,
a class of materials that conduct electricity only on their outside
edges or surfaces. When topological insulators are just one atom thick,
their edges conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency, forcing
electrons to move in defined lanes, without resistance.

http://www.gizmag.com/stanene-topological-insulator/29976/

-------------

Nano
Coatings

http://www.voyle.net/Nano%20Coatings/%20Nano%20Coating1.htm

------------

Many
different coatings, are used for different applications. It is still
debated, what is the most sustainable type of coating out there. Many
people say that we should start using medical grade type coatings, for
many industrial applications. It is often very expensive, to produce
many types of medical grade, or sustainable type coatings.

----------

Physical vapor deposition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_vapor_deposition

----------------------

Titanium nitride

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_nitride

-----------------

Ion plating

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_plating

----------------

Ion implantation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_implantation

----------------------

Indium tin oxide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium_tin_oxide

--------------------

Cathodic arc deposition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathodic_arc_deposition

-----------------------

Plasma-immersion ion implantation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma-immersion_ion_implantation

------------------------

Thin film

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_film

----------------------

Thermal spraying

Several variations of thermal spraying are distinguished:

Plasma spraying

Detonation spraying

Wire arc spraying

Flame spraying

High velocity oxy-fuel coating spraying (HVOF)

Warm spraying

Cold spraying

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_spraying

-----------------

People have used, zinc, to phosphate coatings. Yet, people will always
try to find ways, to make different types of sustainable coatings, that
last longer, and can even conduct electricity.

--------------

Transparent ceramics

Nanomaterials

It has been shown fairly recently that laser elements (amplifiers,
switches, ion hosts, etc.) made from fine-grained ceramic
nanomaterials—produced by the low temperature sintering of high purity
nanoparticles and powders—can be produced at a relatively low cost.
These components are free of internal stress or intrinsic birefringence,
and allow relatively large doping levels or optimized custom-designed
doping profiles. This highlights the use of ceramic nanomaterials as
being particularly important for high-energy laser elements and
applications.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_ceramics

--------------

New nanowire structure absorbs light efficiently

Feb 25, 2015

Researchers
at Aalto University have developed a new method to implement different
types of nanowires side-by-side into a single array on a single
substrate. The new technique makes it possible to use different
semiconductor materials for the different types of nanowires.

'We
have succeeded in combining nanowires grown by the VLS
(vapor-liquid-solid) and SAE (selective-area epitaxy) techniques onto
the same platform. The difference compared with studies conducted
previously on the same topic is that in the dual-type array the
different materials do not grow in the same nanowire, but rather as
separate wires on the same substrate', says Docent Teppo Huhtio.

The research results were published in the Nano Letters journal on 5 February 2015.

The
new fabrication process has many phases. First, gold nanoparticles are
spread on a substrate. Next, the substrate is coated with silicon oxide,
into which small holes are then patterned using electron beam
lithography. In the first step of growth, (SAE), nanowires grow from
where the holes are located, after which the silicon oxide is removed.
In the second phase different types of nanowires are grown with the help
of the gold nanoparticles (VLS). The researchers used metalorganic
vapor phase epitaxy reactor in which the starting materials decompose at
a high temperature, forming semiconductor compounds on the substrate.

'In this way we managed to combine two growth methods into the same process', says doctoral candidate Joona-Pekko Kakko.

'We
noticed in optical reflection measurements that light couples better to
this kind of combination structure. For instance, a solar cell has less
reflection and better absorption of light', Huhtio adds.

In
addition to solar cells and LEDs, the researchers also see good
applications in thermoelectric generators. Further processing for
component applications has already begun.

Nanowires are
being intensely researched, because semiconductor components that are
currently in use need to be made smaller and more cost-effective. The
nanowires made out of semiconductor materials are typically 1-10
micrometres in length, with diameters of 5-100 nanometres.

Stretchable ceramics made by flame technology

June 8th, 2015

Synthesizing
nanoscale materials takes place within high-tech laboratories, where
scientists in full-body suits keep every grain of dust away from their
sensitive innovations. However, scientists at Kiel University proved
that this is not always necessary. They have successfully been able to
transfer the experience from furnace to laboratory while synthesizing
nanoscale materials using simple and highly efficient flame technology.
This "baking" of nanostructures has already been a great success using
zinc oxide. The recent findings concentrate on tin oxide, which opens up
a wide field of possible new applications. The material scientists
published their latest research data in today's issue (Friday, 5 June)
of the renowned scientific journal Advanced Electronic Materials.

New Iron-Based Material Could Be The Best High Temperature Superconductor

Team announces breakthrough observation of Mott transition in a superconductor

September 11, 2015

An
international team of researchers, including the MESA+ Institute for
Nanotechnology at the University of Twente in The Netherlands and the
U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, announced today
in Science the observation of a dynamic Mott transition in a
superconductor.

The discovery experimentally connects
the worlds of classical and quantum mechanics and illuminates the
mysterious nature of the Mott transition. It also could shed light on
non-equilibrium physics, which is poorly understood but governs most of
what occurs in our world. The finding may also represent a step towards
more efficient electronics based on the Mott transition.

Quantum scientists break aluminium 'monopoly' (Update)

May 25, 2015

A Majorana fermion, or a Majorana particle, is a
fermion that is its own antiparticle. Discovering the Majorana was the
first step, but utilizing it as a quantum bit (qubit) still remains a
major challenge. An important step towards this goal has just been taken
by researchers from TU Delft in today's issue of Nature Physics. It is a
nearly thirty-year-old scientific problem that has just been resolved:
demonstrating the difference between the even and odd occupation of a
superconductor in high magnetic fields. Thus far, this was only possible
in aluminium, which is incompatible with Majoranas. This result enables
the read out and manipulation of quantum states encoded in prospective
Majorana qubits.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-monopoly-aluminium-broken.html#ajTabs

We
can see the problems with many consumer items not being able to
biodegrade properly. We need new type of sustainable bio-cellulose and
silicone.

--------------------------

Scientists Discover New Rock Made From Human Plastic Waste and Ocean Debris

06/08/14

Just in time for World Environment Day,
Canadian scientists have announced the discovery of a new type of rock
made from the scraps of melted plastic waste and ocean debris. According
to researchers at the University of Western Ontario,
this new material, known as plastiglomerate, is formed when melted
plastic waste on beaches mixes with sediment, lava fragments and organic
debris. These virtually indestructible plastiglomerates may become part
of the Earth’s geologic record forever and could one day act as a sad
geological marker for humanity’s impact on the planet.

Some organisations are against the mass-production of any types of plastics, that could be introduced into the environment.

------

Turning poop into plastic at Paris climate talks

December 13, 2015

A small piece of dung
was on proud display at global climate-saving talks in Paris, just a few
steps away from being transformed into a plastic bottle or fuel for a
car.

Along with scraps from slaughterhouses and dinner
tables, it is the raw material for an innovative process to turn waste
into a range of new products.

"This is the third
Industrial Revolution. It changes the world from using oil products to
using biomass," Regis Nouaille, founder of biotech startup Afyren, told
AFP at the UN conference where 195 nations agreed a historic climate
rescue pact.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-poop-plastic-paris-climate.html

---------------------------

Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year

February 13, 2015

It's equal to five grocery bags per every foot of coastline around the globe, says new study.

Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea

The Great Plastic Tide

http://coastalcare.org/2009/11/plastic-pollution/

---------------------

This solar water wheel could be the solution to plastic ocean debris

July 30, 2014

As much as we love highlighting new and interesting technologies,
sometimes old technologies prove to be the best. This is definitely the
case in Baltimore where a giant water wheel is removing tons of trash
every day from the water, keeping it from ending up in the ocean. This
centuries-old technology is quickly becoming the best solution yet for
keeping plastic out of the oceans.

Europe’s current position in producing bio-based polymers is limited to a
few polymers. However, new developments and investments are foreseen:
the first European industrial-scale PLA plant by 2014, the introduction
of PET production facilities by 2015, recent developments in the
commercialization of bio-based PBT and further advancements in the field
of high-value fine chemicals for PA, PUR and thermosets production.
Although Europe shows a strong demand for bio-based polymers, production
tends to take place elsewhere-largely the consequence of an
unfavourable political framework for the industrial material use of
biomass.

Cellulose macro- and nanofibers have gained increasing attention due to the high
strength and stiffness, biodegradability and renewability, and their production and
application
in development of composites. Application of cellulose nanofibers for
the development of composites is a relatively new research area.
Cellulose macro- and nanofibers can be used as reinforcement in
composite materials because of enhanced mechanical, thermal, and
biodegradation properties of composites. Cellulose fibers are
hydrophilic in nature, so it becomes necessary to increase their surface
roughness for the development of composites with enhanced properties.
In the present paper, we have reviewed the surface modification of
cellulose fibers by various methods. Processing methods, properties, and
various applications of nanocellulose and cellulosic composites are
also discussed in this paper.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Improvement of plant based natural fibers for toughening green composites

--------------------------------------------------------------------

ARCHIVED - Lighter, Stronger, "Greener" Plastics

For
several years, the NRC-IMI team has been perfecting techniques
involving the use of clay nanoparticles to create new nanocomposite
plastics. Nanocomposites have been proven to dramatically increase the
strength of polymer materials. Just last year, NRC-IMI launched a joint
industry partnership group focused on nanocomposites to further explore
the use of such materials. It is hoped that nanoclays will add critical
strength to already lightweight foamed materials. As well, nanoparticles
have been shown to enhance the growth of foam cells, a process known as
nucleation. In the past year, a NRC-ICPET research team, in
collaboration with University of Ottawa, became the second group in the
world to publish results on the fundamental interaction of CO2 with
nanocomposites - an emerging area of study.

Cellulose Nanopaper – Strong, Light and Green Alternative to Metals

August 3, 2015

New paper-like material made of cellulose is much stronger than metal, and could one day replace it.
Alternative eco-friendly materials
that can replace metals are of high demand. The reasons behind this are
many, including polluting mining processes, expensive manufacturing of
products made of metals, and of course, the need of making everything
lighter yet still tough and strong.

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/cellulose-nanopaper/#.Ve-vFJe-2zk

----------------------------

A green and efficient method for preparing acetylated cassava stillage residue and the production of all-plant fibre composites

Cassava stillage residue (CSR), a kind of agro-industrial plant fibres,
was directly acetylated and converted into thermoplastic material by
mechanical activation-assisted solid phase reaction (MASPR) in a
stirring ball mill without the use of organic solvent and additives. As
combining mechanical activation and chemical modification in the same
equipment, the destruction of hydrogen bonds and crystalline structure
of CSR induced by intense milling improved the reactivity of CSR,
leading to the effective acetylation of CSR. After acetylation by MASPR,
the modified CSRs possessed thermoplasticity, ascribing to the
introduction of acetyl groups and the destruction of high crystallinity
structure of cellulose. The self-reinforced all-plant fibre composites
(APFC) were successfully produced with the modified CSRs as both matrix
and reinforcement by hot pressing technology. The direct acetylation of
CSR and successful production of APFC suggested that MASPR was a simple,
efficient and environmentally friendly method for chemical modification
of agro-industrial lignocellulose biomass.

Progress in bio-based plastics and plasticizing modifications

Over the coming few decades bioplastic materials are expected to
complement and gradually replace some of the fossil oil based materials.
Multidisciplinary research efforts have generated a significant level
of technical and commercial success towards these bio-based materials.
However, extensive application of these bio-based plastics is still
challenged by one or more of their possible inherent limitations, such
as poor processability, brittleness, hydrophilicity, poor moisture and
gas barrier, inferior compatibility, poor electrical, thermal and
physical properties. The incorporation of additives such as plasticizers
into the biopolymers is a common practice to improve these inherent
limitations. Generally, plasticizers are added to both synthetic and
bio-based polymeric materials to impart flexibility, improve toughness,
and lower the glass transition temperature. This review introduces the
most common bio-based plastics and provides an overview of recent
advances in the selection and use of plasticizers, and their effect on
the performance of these materials. In addition to plasticizers, we also
present a perspective of other emerging techniques of improving the
overall performance of bio-based plastics. Although a wide variety of
bio-based plastics are under development, this review focuses on
plasticizers utilized for the most extensively studied bioplastics
including poly(lactic acid), polyhydroxyalkanoates, thermoplastic
starch, proteinaceous plastics and cellulose acetates. The ongoing
challenge and future potentials of plasticizers for bio-based plastics
are also discussed.

Effect of biodegradable plasticizers on thermal and mechanical properties of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

The effects of biodegradable plasticizers on the thermal and mechanical
properties of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) were
studied using thermal and mechanical analyses. Soybean oil (SO),
epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and triethyl
citrate (TEC) were used as plasticizing additives. PHBV/plasticizer
blends were prepared by evaporating solvent from blend solutions. The
content of plasticizer in the blends was kept at 20wt%. Compatibility of
plasticizer with PHBV was examined with differential scanning
calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). DPB and TEC
were more effective than soybean oils (SO and ESO) in depression of the
glass transition temperatures as well as in increasing the elongation at
break and the impact strength of the films. From the thermal and
mechanical properties of the plasticized PHBV, it could be concluded
that TEC or DBP are better plasticizers than SO and ESO for PHBV.

IBM discovers first new class of polymers in decades

The IBM polymers consist of two related classes of plastic materials.
They’re formed by combining paraformaldehyde and 4,4ʹ-oxydianiline in
what’s called a condensation reaction. When heated to 250⁰ C (482⁰ F)
the material becomes very strong as covalent bonds form and the solvent
is forced out, forming the first of two versions of the polymer. Both
versions are highly elastic, resistant to solvents, and are recyclable.
One version can even self-heal.

These polymers also show new physical properties. The first version is
lightweight, stiff, resistant to cracking, shows more strength than
bone, and can also turned into new polymer structures with half again as
much strength. However, it is very brittle, like glass. When mixed with
carbon nanofibers and heated, it forms an extremely strong, lightweight
composite material that is similar to metal, yet has a degree of
self-healing when cracked.

Polylactide (PLA) blends with 0–40 wt % gelatinized starches (GSs) in
the presence of plasticizers and compatibilizer for improving
interfacial bonding between two phases were prepared. The effects of
compatibilizer, type and amount of starch, including type and
concentration of plasticizer on the physical, morphological, thermal,
and mechanical properties of these films were investigated. Two types of
starch (corn and tapioca) were added as fillers, whereas the glycerol
amount was varied from 0 to 35 wt % based on starch content.
Polyethylene glycol (PEG400) and propylene glycol (PG) were added as
plasticizers at four different amounts (5–20 wt %) based on PLA content,
while methylenediphenyl diisocyanate was used as a compatibilizer at
1.25 wt % of GS. The results indicated that the presence of glycerol had
no effect on the thermal degradation of GS. For PLA plasticization, the
plasticized PLA with PEG400 had better properties than that with PG.
Water absorption isotherm of the blend films increased as the amount of
starches increased; in contrast, the tensile properties decreased
progressively with the addition of the GS content. The blend films with
gelatinized corn starch had higher tensile properties than those with
gelatinized tapioca starch.

The effect of the plasticizer content (mixture of water and glycerol) on
the cellular structure of the considered material and its influence on
the resulting properties, such as mechanical stiffness, are investigated
by means of optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry and
standard mechanical testing. Adding glycerol leads to larger cell walls
and smaller pores but it does not significantly affect the elastic
tangent modulus and strength under compression for deformations up to
50%; only a tendency to promote elastic recovery is observed.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/masy.201300134/abstract

-----------------------------------------------

Handbook of Plasticizers

By George Wypych

This
book talks about many different types of plasticizers. This includes
the simulation of different plasticizers that could be used, in the
colonization of space.Chapter 10.14 Biodegradation in the presence of plasticizers

The soya bean has long been used to develop products ranging from foiod and diesel fuels to polymers,fabric softeners, solvents, adhesives, linoleum, rubber substitutes, printing inks, and plastics. Recent advances in recombinant genetic biotechnology have made it possible to alter the lipid composition of soya beans to increase the variety of biohydrocarbons available for industrial applications. Amides, esters and acetates of biohydrocarbons are currently used as plasticisers, blocking/slip agents and mold-release agents for synthetic polymers. Biohydrocarbons linked to amines, alcohols, phosphates and sulfur groups are used as fabric softeners, surfactants, emulsifiers, corrosion inhibitors, anti-static agents, hair conditioners, ink carriers, biodegradable solvents, cosmetic bases and perfumes. In combination with aluminum and magnesium, the soya bean is used to produce greases and marine lubricating materials.

2. Biotechnology in industrial sectors

Various parts of the industry are experimenting with the new tools offered by biotechnology. Of particular interest is the possibility of using biobased resources as feedstocks in the larger volume sectors. While biobased manufacturing will not necessarily always be cleaner, it is certain that wastes from biobased manufacturing will be more compatible with conventional wastewater treatment systems.

Pharmaceuticals

Today, many pharmaceuticals are semi-synthetic molecules, in that part of their structure is synthesised by a living organism and later modified by chemical processing. Thanks to biocatalysis optimised fermentation, and replacement of organic solvents by water, modern biotechnology contributes to cleaner production of such semi-synthetic antibiotics.

Good plastics, bioplastics and greenwashing

Plastic is not inert

Conventional plastic contains a large number, and sometimes a large
proportion, of chemical additives which can be endocrine disruptors,
carcinogenic or provoke other toxic reactions and can, in principle,
migrate into the environment, though in small quantities. Persistent
organic pollutants (POPs), such as pesticides like DDT and
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), can attach themselves from the
surrounding water to plastic fragments which can be harmful and enter
the food chain via marine fauna.

The Bioplastic Concept Car: Seaweed

New strain of seaweed tastes like bacon

July 16, 2015

Seaweed is widely considered to be a health food. Bacon, on the other
hand ... well, bacon isn't. There may yet be hope for pork belly lovers
around the world, however. Scientists at Oregon State University (OSU)
have patented a lab-bred strain of dulce seaweed, that they claim has "a
strong bacon flavor" when fried.

http://www.gizmag.com/dulce-seaweed-bacon/38503/

------------------

'Mutarium' prototype is the perfect farm for edible plastic-eating fungi

December 15th 2014

Biodegradable
plastics exist because traditional ones take between 20 and 1,000 years
to break down in the wild, often blocking waterways and killing animals
as that all happens. That's why two industrial designers and a group of
microbiologists have designed a way to break down plastic -- and create
edible mushrooms in the process.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/15/fungi-mutarium-plastic/

------------------

Can mushrooms replace plastic?

As it turns out, they are equally versatile outside of the food world.
They can produce packaging, home insulation, fiberboard for furniture,
even a surfboard.

Diaper-grown mushrooms to cut down waste

September 3, 2014

While their contents might be considered an environmental hazard by
many, disposable diapers themselves pose a more significant problem for
the environment. According to the EPA,
the average baby will work their way through 8,000 of them before they
end up in landfill where they'll take centuries to break down. In an
effort to reduce the problem, scientists at Mexico's Autonomous
Metropolitan University, Azcapotzalco (UAM-A), have turned used diapers
to the task of growing mushrooms.

Tequila waste combined with recycled plastic to form wood substitute

January 21, 2015

When the sap from plants such as sugar cane is extracted for commercial
use, what's left over is a fibrous material known as bagasse. This is
commonly used as biofuel, or is compressed into a wood substitute. Now,
Mexican startup Plastinova is using agave bagasse from the tequila industry to make a wood-like material of its own, although it's also incorporating recycled plastic.

Learn how PLA Bioplastic can be recycled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_C4x-jjZBc

------------

Sensor detects toxins leaching from plastic

December 10, 2015

Engineers from Massey University have developed a
highly sensitive device able to detect synthetic compounds that leach
from plastic food packaging into the contained food or beverage. These
kind of compounds are a major health concern worldwide as they have been
linked to genetic, developmental and fertility defects in humans.

Dr
Asif Zia, together with Professor Subhas Mukhopadhyay, both from the
School Engineering and Advanced Technology developed an electrochemical
sensing system that is able to rapidly quantify a synthetic compound –
di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate or DEHP for short.

DEHP is
used to induce flexibility in the plastic products but, because of its
molecular structure, it does not attach itself covalently to the
plastic's lattice structure and may leach into the surrounding
environment. It is classed as a teratogenic, or malformation causing,
compound as well as an endocrine-disrupter, which interferes with the
body's natural hormonal system. The World Health Organization refers
concentrations of DEHP greater than six parts per billion as hazardous
for human health.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-sensor-toxins-leaching-plastic.html

------------

Self-healing bioplastic – just add water

September 2, 2015

Imagine if things like undersea cables or medical implants could
simply heal themselves back together if severed – it would certainly be
easier than having to go in and fix them. Well, scientists at
Pennsylvania State University are bringing such a possibility closer to
reality. They've created a moldable polymer that heals itself when
exposed to water – and it's based on squid sucker ring teeth.
Led by Prof. Melik Demirel, the researchers started
by studying sucker ring teeth collected from squid in various locations
around the world. Although the exact composition of the teeth varied
between species, it was found that the same proteins which allow them to
self-heal were always present

This edible water blob could replace plastic bottles

Mar 27, 2014

Designers Rodrigo García González, Guillaume Couche and Pierre Paslier
call their creation "Ooho," a gelatinous blob that is actually a
membrane that encapsulates water like a bladder. When you're thirsty,
just puncture the membrane and drink. Or, if you also have an appetite,
just pop a bite-sized Ooho in your mouth and chomp down for a burst of
hydration. The gooey membrane, made from brown algae and calcium
chloride, is edible, hygienic and biodegradable.

Brazilian Lab Turns Fruits, Veggies Into Edible Plastic

January 14, 2015

BRASILIA, Brazil, January 14, 2015 (ENS) – Imagine
putting a pizza in the oven without having to remove the plastic casing
that protects the pizza from contamination. The plastic film consists of
tomatoes and, when heated, it will become part of the pizza.

This edible plastic has been developed by researchers at the
Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa Instrumentation, a
state-owned company affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of
Agriculture.

In fact, the researchers have made edible plastic films from foods such as spinach, papaya and guava as well as tomatoes.

WikiCell Designs producesultra-thin flavored
membranes, called WikiCells, that surround liquids or solids shielding
them from oxygen, oils, and moisture to extend their shelf life. Unlike
Monosol pouches, WikiCells are washable, so the outer container can act
like the skin of a fruit. You just wash and eat them.
A WikiCell is made of two sustainable layers. Eat the inner wrapping, compost the shell; no plastic is involved. The inneredible
membrane, like a grape skin, is held together by intermolecular
electrostatic forces. Positively charged calcium ions bind with
alginate, an anionic (negatively charged) polysaccharide from brown
algae (Fig. 1). The outer compostable shell is made of the residue from
sugarcane crushing.

If you aren’t convinced of PVC’s harmful effects in medical devices
up until this point, there remains one last detriment to using this
insulation powerhouse. A recent study released by Teknor Apex material
science company in October 2013 determined that PVC and plasticizers
alongside non-PVC components in devices can migrate when they come into
contact with each other, resulting in softening, cracks, and other
defects in the system. Their study tested ten different types of
plasticizers, including DEHP, and determined it may have adverse effects
on non-PVC plastics.

The 20-Year-Old With a Plan to Rid the Sea of Plastic

Company unlocks secret to making plastic out of air

"We're not the first people to have the idea of turning greenhouse
gas into plastic," Herrera said. "The thing that was missing was that no
one had figured out how to do it cost-effectively."

Here's how
it works: Carbon emissions are captured from farms, landfills, and
energy facilities and are fed into a 50-foot-tall reactor at Newlight's
plant. A bundle of enzymes strips out the carbon and oxygen and
rearranges them into a substance they call air carbon.

The product is then melted down and cooled inside tubes and sliced into little plastic pellets that can be molded into anything.

New catalyst paves way for bio-based plastics, chemicals

December 11, 2015

Washington
State University researchers have developed a catalyst that easily
converts bio-based ethanol to a widely used industrial chemical, paving
the way for more environmentally friendly, bio-based plastics and
products.

The researchers have published a paper online
describing the catalyst in the Journal of the American Chemical Society
and have been granted a U.S. patent.

The chemical
industry is interested in moving away from fossil fuels to bio-based
products to reduce environmental impacts and to meet new regulations for
sustainability, said Yong Wang, Voiland Distinguished Professor in the
Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and
Bioengineering.

The catalyst works on bio-based ethanol to create isobutene used in plastics and other products.

The
industry has traditionally made a widely used chemical called isobutene
- used in everything from plastic soda bottles to rubber tires - by
superheating crude oil. But in collaboration with the Archer Daniels
Midland (ADM) Company, Wang and his colleagues developed a catalyst to
convert bio-based ethanol, which is made from corn or other biomass, to
isobutene in one easy production step.

-----------------------

It
is questionable to many, if we should genetically modify animals, to
make plastic out of the materials from their DNA. We still are not for
certain, how this type of plastic, will react in the wild, with other
natural organisms.

Web-slinging arachnids already have researchers toiling away looking to replicate the remarkable properties of spider silk.
Now spiders, along with their insect and crustacean arthropod cousins,
have provided inspiration for a new material that is cheap to produce,
biodegradable, and biocompatible. Its creators say the material, dubbed
"Shrilk," has the potential to replace plastics in consumer products and
could also be used safely in a variety of medical applications, such as
suturing wounds or serving as scaffolding for tissue regeneration.
Arthropods have an outer skeleton made up of a
composite material called cuticle that consists of layers of a
polysaccharide polymer called chitin and protein organized in a laminar,
plywood-like structure. In its unmodified form, which can be seen in
the body wall of a caterpillar, chitin is translucent, pliable,
resilient and quite tough, but arthropods are able to modify its
properties to make it tough and rigid, as seen in the body wall of a
beetle, or to make it elastic, as seen in arthropod limb joints. Not
only does cuticle protect the arthropod's internal components and
provide structure for muscles and wings, it does so without adding
weight or bulk.
http://www.gizmag.com/shrilk-bioinspired-material/20858/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------------

Plastic, sustainable and quick: Road idea seeks takeoff

Rubber meets the road with new ORNL carbon, battery technologies

August 27, 2014

Recycled tires could see new life in lithium-ion batteries that
provide power to plug-in electric vehicles and store energy produced by
wind and solar, say researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge
National Laboratory.
By modifying the
microstructural characteristics of carbon black, a substance recovered
from discarded tires, a team led by Parans Paranthaman and Amit Naskar
is developing a better anode for lithium-ion batteries. An anode is a
negatively charged electrode used as a host for storing lithium during
charging.

New production process makes PLA bioplastic cheaper and greener

July 21, 2015

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a biodegradable bioplastic that is already
used to produce a variety of everyday items, such as cups, trays, bowls
and vegetable wrapping foil. Unfortunately, the current PLA production
process is expensive and produces waste. Researchers at the KU Leuven
Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis in Belgium have now developed
a new production technique that is cheaper and greener and makes PLA a
more attractive alternative to petroleum-based plastics.
PLA boasts a number of advantages over
petroleum-based plastic. It is one of the few plastics suitable for use
in 3D printers, it is biocompatible, making it suitable for medical use,
and it biodegrades in a few years in certain environments, and is
industrially compostable and recyclable. But when it comes to cost, PLA
can't compete with petroleum-based plastics due to the intermediary
steps required to produce it.

As its name suggests, lactic acid is a main building
block of PLA. This can be obtained by the fermentation of sugar that can
be sourced from renewable resources such as corn starch, tapioca and
sugarcane.

It
is still debated, if we should use natural or synthetic materials, for
the use of materials in roads. This includes the use of natural vs
synthetic rubber, and the impact that this has on the environment.

---------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 6: Conductivity in polymers and rubbers

----------------
----------------

---------------------

Solving mysteries of conductivity in polymers

July 15, 2015

Materials
known as conjugated polymers have been seen as very promising
candidates for electronics applications, including capacitors,
photodiodes, sensors, organic light-emitting diodes, and thermoelectric
devices. But they've faced one major obstacle: Nobody has been able to
explain just how electrical conduction worked in these materials, or to
predict how they would behave when used in such devices.

Now
researchers at MIT and Brookhaven National Laboratory have explained
how electrical charge carriers move in these compounds, potentially
opening up further research on such applications. A paper presenting the
new findings is being published in the journal Advanced Materials.

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-mysteries-polymers.html#jCp

-----------------

Researchers discover new fundamental quantum mechanical property

January 6, 2016

Nanotechnologists
at the University of Twente research institute MESA+ have discovered a
new fundamental property of electrical currents in very small metal
circuits. They show how electrons can spread out over the circuit like
waves and cause interference effects at places where no electrical
current is driven. The geometry of the circuit plays a key role in this
so called nonlocal effect. The interference is a direct consequence of
the quantum mechanical wave character of electrons and the specific
geometry of the circuit. For designers of quantum computers it is an
effect to take account of. The results are published in the British
journal Scientific Reports.

Natural
rubber, from the rubber tree, is a sustainable material, if not
over-harvested. Many groups have turned to using synthetic rubber. This
type of synthetic rubber, can be found in shoes, including tires.
Synthetic rubber, is actually a type of plastic. Many people are
concerned, with how current synthetic rubber on the market, biodegrades
in the wild. This includes the chemicals found in synthetic rubber, that
have been known to have harmful chemicals, within the composition of
synthetic rubber. Even when someone tries to handle certain chemicals
that make certain types of synthetic rubber, that individual is at risk
for absorbing those chemicals through their blood system.

---------------

TOXICOLOGY AND EXPOSURE GUIDELINES

http://ehs.unl.edu/documents/tox_exposure_guidelines.pdf

"All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison.

The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy."

This
early observation concerning the toxicity of chemicals was made by
Paracelsus (1493-1541). The classic connotation of toxicology was "the
science of poisons." Since that time, the science has expanded to
encompass several disciplines. Toxicology is the study of the
interaction between chemical agents and biological systems. While the
subject of toxicology is quite complex, it is necessary to understand
the basic concepts in order to make logical decisions

concerning
the protection of personnel from toxic injuries. Toxicity can be
defined as the relative ability of a substance to cause adverse effects
in living

organisms. This "relative ability is dependent upon several conditions.

Routes of Exposure

Skin
(or eye) absorption: Skin (dermal) contact can cause effects that are
relatively innocuous such as redness or mild dermatitis; more severe
effects include destruction of skin tissue or other debilitating
conditions. Many chemicals can also cross the skin barrier and be
absorbed into the blood system. Once absorbed, they may produce systemic
damage to internal organs. The eyes are particularly sensitive to
chemicals. Even a short exposure can cause severe effects to the eyes or
the substance can be absorbed through the eyes and be transported to
other parts of the body causing harmful effects.

Industrial Toxicants

Carbon disulfide: Solvent in rayon and rubber industries.

Aniline, used in manufacture of rubber accelerators and antioxidants, resins, and

varnishes.

Chloroprene, used in production of synthetic rubber.

http://ehs.unl.edu/documents/tox_exposure_guidelines.pdf

---------

Ricoh develops energy-generating rubber

May 22, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/ricoh-energy-generating-rubber/37590/

----------------

Road to supercapacitors for scrap tires

Date:

September 25, 2015

Source:

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Summary:

Some of the 300 million tires discarded each year
in the United States alone could be used in supercapacitors for vehicles
and the electric grid using a technology.

These Futuristic Car Tires Never Go Flat

Researchers discover importance of using right rubber for the job

May 28th, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-importance-rubber-job.html#jCp

The
types of surface that scientists and engineers make copies of include
skin, teeth, superconductor components in particle accelerators, and
various tools, including forensic and archaeological investigations.
Surfaces are carefully measured to quantify their roughness and texture,
but this can be surprisingly tricky.

The importance of
a surface's roughness can be seen in car engines, where if the walls of
the engine's cylinders are too smooth they will seize, meaning that the
surface needs to be just rough enough to carry a film of lubricant to
maintain a smooth piston action.

Techniques have now
been developed that can make measurements of ridges, bumps and dimples,
down to the nanometre scale - less than 1/100 the thickness of a human
hair...

----

When
we get down to nano sized particles, we can see how to strengthen
structures, on a microscopic level. This includes nanocrystals, shown to
strengthen concrete.

In
this chapter, we will talk about some of the strongest materials in the
world. We can even make some of the strongest materials in the world,
from sustainable sources. These structures include carbon fiber and graphene.

-------------------

3D-printed composite is lighter than wood and stiffer than concrete

June 27, 2014

Reseachers at Harvard University have developed a way to 3D-print a
cellular composite with record lightness and stiffness using an epoxy
resin. This marks the first time that epoxy is used for 3D-printing, and
the advance could lead to the development of new lightweight
architectures for more efficient wind turbines, faster cars, and lighter
airplanes...

Engineering The Strongest Foam in the World

Superplasticizer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superplasticizer

------------

Plasticizer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticizer

Plasticizers (UK: plasticisers) or dispersants are additives that increase the plasticity or fluidity of a material. The dominant applications are for plastics, especially polyvinyl chloride
(PVC). The properties of other materials are also improved when blended
with plasticizers including concrete, clays, and related products.

Effect on health

Substantial concerns have been expressed over the safety of some
plasticizers, especially because several ortho-phthalates have been
classified as potential endocrine disruptors with some developmental toxicity reported.[11]

Appendix: various specific plasticizers

Dicarboxylic/tricarboxylic ester-based plasticizers

Phthalate-based
plasticizers are used in situations where good resistance to water and
oils is required. Some common phthalate plasticizers are:

Plasticizers for energetic materials

-------------------

How products are made: Rope

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Rope.html#ixzz3guBY88YM

Although the origin of rope is unknown, the Egyptians were the first
people to develop special tools to make rope. Egyptian rope dates back to
4000 to 3500
B.C.
and was generally made of water reed fibers. Other Egyptian rope was made
from the fibers of date palms, flax, grass, papyrus, leather, or camel
hair. The use of such ropes pulled by thousands of slaves allowed the
Egyptians to move the heavy stones required to build the pyramids. By
about 2800
B.C.
, rope made of hemp fibers was in use in China.

Raw Materials

Rope may be made either from natural fibers, which have been processed to
allow them to be easily formed into yarn, or from synthetic materials,
which have been spun into fibers or extruded into long filaments.

Natural fibers include hemp, sisal, cotton, flax, and jute. Another
natural material is called manila hemp, but it is actually the fibers from
a banana plant. Sisal was used extensively to make twine, but synthetic
materials are replacing it. Manila rope is still used by traditionalists,
but it can rot from the inside, thus losing its strength without giving
any outward indication.

Synthetic fibers include nylon,
polyester,
polypropylene and aramid. Polypropylene costs the least, floats on water,
and does not stretch appreciably. For these reasons it makes a good water
ski tow rope. Nylon is moderately expensive, fairly strong, and has quite
a bit of stretch. It makes a good mooring and docking line for boats
because of its ability to give slightly, yet hold. Aramid is the
strongest, but is also very expensive. Nylon and polyester may be spun
into fibers about 4-10 inches (10-25 cm) long. Ropes made from spun
synthetic fibers feel fuzzy and are not as strong as ropes made from long,
continuous filaments. Some ropes use two different synthetic materials to
achieve a combination of high strength and low cost or high strength and
smooth surface finish.
Wire rope may be made from iron or steel wires. This is commonly referred
to as cable and is used in bridges,
elevators,
and cranes. It is made by a different process than fiber or filament
ropes.

----------------

Difference Between Synthetic & Natural Fiber Rope

Environmental Effects

Synthetic rope is created using plastics with dangerous chemical
byproducts, while natural fiber ropes are woven from jute, sisal, and,
hemp--all renewable and biodegradable resources with no chemical
byproduct.

Scientists
are concerned with the use of genetically modified bacteria, that can
be used to heal structures such as rope and concrete.

-----------------------

The 'living concrete' that can heal itself

May 14, 2015

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/14/tech/bioconcrete-delft-jonkers/

- The bioconcrete is mixed just like regular
concrete, but with an extra ingredient -- the "healing agent." It
remains intact during mixing, only dissolving and becoming active if the
concrete cracks and water gets in.

Jonkers,
a microbiologist, began working on it in 2006, when a concrete
technologist asked him if it would be possible to use bacteria to make
self-healing concrete.

It took Jonkers three years to crack the problem -- but there were some tricky challenges to overcome.

"You
need bacteria that can survive the harsh environment of concrete," says
Jonkers. "It's a rock-like, stone-like material, very dry."

Concrete is extremely alkaline and the "healing" bacteria must wait dormant for years before being activated by water.

Jonkers
chose bacillus bacteria for the job, because they thrive in alkaline
conditions and produce spores that can survive for decades without food
or oxygen.

"The next challenge was not
only to have the bacteria active in concrete, but also to make them
produce repair material for the concrete -- and that is limestone,"
Jonkers explains.

In order to produce
limestone the bacilli need a food source. Sugar was one option, but
adding sugar to the mix would create soft, weak, concrete.

In
the end, Jonkers chose calcium lactate, setting the bacteria and
calcium lactate into capsules made from biodegradable plastic and adding
the capsules to the wet concrete mix.

When cracks eventually begin to form in the concrete, water enters and open the capsules.

The
bacteria then germinate, multiply and feed on the lactate, and in doing
so they combine the calcium with carbonate ions to form calcite, or
limestone, which closes up the cracks.

Now Jonkers hopes his concrete could be the start of a new age of biological buildings.

--------------------

Many
question if certain chemicals found in self-healing concrete, including
self-healing rope, can be made to be sustainable & non-toxic. This
includes plasticizers for extra strong glass and polymers.

----------------------

Many people are looking for an environmentally friendly version of rope, with high tensile strength.

------------------------

Ultimate tensile strength

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensile_strength

Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to tensile strength (TS) or ultimate strength, is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before failing or breaking. Tensile strength is distinct from compressive strength.

Study shows how calcium carbonate forms composites to make strong materials such as in shells and pearls

January 8, 2016

Seashells
and lobster claws are hard to break, but chalk is soft enough to draw
on sidewalks. Though all three are made of calcium carbonate crystals,
the hard materials include clumps of soft biological matter that make
them much stronger. A study today in Nature Communications reveals how
soft clumps get into crystals and endow them with remarkable strength.

Carbyne is stronger than any known material

August 20, 2013

A
paper on Arxiv presents a detailed look at the properties of carbyne,
stronger than graphene and diamond, a true supermaterial. The paper is
titled, "Carbyne from first principles: Chain of C atoms, a nanorod or a
nanorope?" Authors are Mingjie Liu, Vasilii I. Artyukhov, Hoonkyung
Lee, Fangbo Xu, and Boris I. Yakobson, from Rice University, in Houston,
from the departments of mechanical engineering and materials science,
chemistry, and the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and
Technology. They have calculated the properties of carbyne. Described as
a chain of carbon atoms that are linked by alternate triple and single
bonds or by consecutive double bonds, carbyne is of special interest,
chemists find, because it is stronger, and stiffer than anything that
they have seen before. The discovery of carbyne is not entirely new.
Explorations of carbyne have their own history.

Artificial graphene could outperform the real thing

Graphene
is truly a 21st-century wonder material, finding use in everything from
solar cells to batteries to tiny antennas. Now, however, a group of
European research institutes have joined forces to create a graphene
knock-off, that could prove to be even more versatile.

Conventional
graphene takes the form of a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms,
linked together in a honeycomb pattern. Along with being transparent and
conductive, it is also both the world's thinnest material, and the
strongest.

The artificial graphene has the same
honeycomb structure, but is made from nanometer-thick semiconductor
crystals instead of carbon atoms. The chemical makeup, size and shape of
those crystals can be tweaked, essentially custom-tuning the properties
of the material to the desired application.

It could
conceivably be used in many of the same places in which graphene is
currently utilized, but with even better performance. According to
project partner the University of Luxembourg, “'Artificial graphene'
should lead to faster, smaller and lighter electronic and optical
devices of all kinds, including higher performance photovoltaic cells,
lasers or LED lighting."

MIT has a new method for producing large quantities of graphene

(The new technique involves wrapping a substrate around an inner tube and passing gas through an outer tube).

http://www.gizmag.com/mit-graphene-large-quantities/37635/

------------

For faster, larger graphene add a liquid layer

July 15, 2015

Millimetre-sized crystals of high-quality graphene
can be made in minutes instead of hours using a new scalable technique,
Oxford University researchers have demonstrated.In
just 15 minutes the method can produce large graphene crystals around
2-3 millimetres in size that it would take up to 19 hours to produce
using current chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques in which
carbon in gas reacts with, for example, copper to form graphene.
Graphene
promises to be a 'wonder material' for building new technologies
because of its combination of strength, flexibility, electrical
properties, and chemical resistance. But this promise will only be
realised if it can be produced cost-effectively on a commercial scale.

With
the continued rise in the uptake of solar cells, consumers are now
looking at less obtrusive ways to incorporate these in buildings and
vehicles. Transparent or semi-transparent cells provide greater
flexibility and visual appeal than standard, opaque silicon solar cells,
however their relatively high-cost and poor efficiencies have meant
that their adoption has been slow. To help remedy this, researchers
working at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have created
semi-transparent, efficient, low-cost perovskite solar cells with
graphene electrodes.

Conductive graphene yarn is lighter and stretchier than copper wire

June 23, 2014

The researchers started by chemically exfoliating flakes of graphene
from a block of graphite. Those flakes were then mixed with water, and
that mixture was concentrated into a slurry using a centrifuge. That
slurry was then spread across a plate and allowed to dry, forming into a
thin transparent film of graphene oxide.

The film was subsequently peeled off the plate and
cut into narrow strips, those strips in turn getting wound together
using an automatic fiber scroller.

The resulting yarn can be knotted and stretched
without fracturing, and is said to be much stronger than other types of
carbon fibers – this quality could be due to the presence of tiny air
pockets within it.

Removing oxygen from the material boosts its
electrical conductivity, and adding silver nanorods to it in the
film-fabricating stage could reportedly boost that conductivity further,
to the point of matching that of copper. Its stretchability and lighter
weight, however, could make it a better alternative in many
applications.

Graphene could find use in lightweight ballistic body armor

December 1st, 2014

While graphene
is already known for being the world's strongest material, most studies
have focused on its tensile strength – that's the maximum stress that
it can withstand while being pulled or stretched, before failing.
According to studies conducted at Houston's Rice University, however,
its ability to absorb sudden impacts hadn't previously been thoroughly
explored. As it turns out, the material is 10 times better than steel at
dissipating kinetic energy. That could make it an excellent choice for
lightweight ballistic body armor.

Graphene used to rust-proof steel

May 29, 2012

Hexavalent chromium compounds are a key ingredient in coatings used to
rust-proof steel. They also happen to be carcinogenic. Researchers,
therefore, have been looking for non-toxic alternatives that could be
used to keep steel items from corroding. Recently, scientists from the
University at Buffalo announced that they have developed such a
substance. It’s a varnish that incorporates graphene, the one-atom-thick
carbon sheeting material that is the thinnest and strongest substance
known to exist.

Graphene shown to safely interact with neurons in the brain

January 29, 2016

Researchers have successfully demonstrated how it is possible
to interface graphene - a two-dimensional form of carbon - with neurons,
or nerve cells, while maintaining the integrity of these vital cells.
The work may be used to build graphene-based electrodes that can safely
be implanted in the brain, offering promise for the restoration of
sensory functions for amputee or paralysed patients, or for individuals
with motor disorders such as epilepsy or Parkinson's disease.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-graphene-shown-safely-interact-neurons.html

-------------

A new way to make higher quality bilayer graphene

February 8, 2016

A
team of researchers with members from institutions in the U.S., Korea
and China has developed a new way to make bilayer graphene that is
higher in quality than that produced through any other known process. In
their paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, the team describes the
technique they developed and the possible uses for the bilayer graphene
that is produced.

Graphene is, of course, a flat
material made from just single carbon atoms; it forms in a honeycomb
pattern and has been found to have excellent electrical properties—one
hindrance to using graphene in many applications has been the lack of a
bandgap. That hindrance was partially overcome back in 2009 when a team
working in the U.S. found that creating two layers of graphene bonded
together and then applying electricity could cause a bandgap to occur.
Since that time, researchers have been looking for ways to create such
bilayer graphene in a way that could be commercialized. In this latest
effort, the researchers report on a new technique they have developed
that they claim produces the highest quality bilayer graphene yet.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-higher-quality-bilayer-graphene.html

--------------

2D self-assembling semiconductor could beat out graphene

May 2, 2014

Graphene may be talked about as the future wonder material (and for
that matter, the present one), but it has one critical deficiency. It
lacks a natural bandgap, the physical trait that puts the “semi” in
“semiconductor," so it has to be doped to become effective. Enter
Ni3(2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene)2 ... well, you can refer to it
as a metal-organic graphene analogue for now. In addition to having a
natural band gap, it’s able to self-assemble and represents a whole
family of compounds that’s exciting to researchers for its novel
properties.

Nickel (the metal) and HITP (the organic compound)
are represented in the diagram at the top of the page, with nickel
colored in green, amino groups in purple, and carbon rings in grey. The
amino groups in the carbon rings are attracted to the nickel, and
because of the symmetry and geometry in HITP, the overall organometallic
complex almost has a fractal nature that allows this new semiconductor
to self-organize perfectly. A band gap is created in the “hole” where
electrons aren’t, a space that's just about 2 nm across.

New alloy claimed to have higher strength-to-weight ratio than any other metal

December 11, 2014

When it comes to metal that's being used in the automotive or aerospace
industries, the higher its strength-to-weight ratio, the better. With
that in mind, researchers from North Carolina State University and Qatar
University have developed a new alloy that reportedly has a low density
similar to that of aluminum, but that's stronger than titanium.

Researchers have created a new aerogel that boasts amazing strength
and an incredibly large surface area. Nicknamed ‘frozen smoke’ due to
its translucent appearance, aerogels are manufactured materials derived
from a gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced
with a gas, resulting in a material renowned as the world’s lightest
solid material. The new so-called “multiwalled carbon nanotube (MCNT)
aerogel” could be used in sensors to detect pollutants and toxic
substances, chemical reactors, and electronics components.

Although aerogels have been fabricated from silica,
metal oxides, polymers, and carbon-based materials and are already used
in thermal insulation in windows and buildings, tennis racquets, sponges
to clean up oil spills, and other products, few scientists have
succeeded in making aerogels from carbon nanotubes.

The researchers were able to succeed where so many
before them had failed using a wet gel of well-dispersed pristine
MWCNTs. After removing the liquid component from the MWCNT wet gel, they
were able to create the lightest ever free-standing MWCNT aerogel
monolith with a density of 4 mg/cm3.

MWCNT aerogels infused with a plastic material are
flexible, like a spring that can be stretched thousands of times, and if
the nanotubes in a one-ounce cube were unraveled and placed
side-to-side and end-to-end, they would carpet three football fields.
The MWCNT aerogels are also excellent conductors of electricity, which
is what makes them ideal for sensing applications and offers great
potential for their use in electronics components.

Aerographite claims title of World's Lightest Solid Material

While they were each once hailed as the lightest solid material ever made, metallic microlattice and aerogel
have now been moved back to second and third place (respectively), with
aerographite taking the crown. Developed by a team from the Technical
University of Hamburg and Germany’s University of Kiel, the material is
composed of 99.99 percent air, along with a three-dimensional network of
porous carbon nanotubes that were grown into each other.

Aerographite has a density of less than 0.2
milligrams per cubic centimeter, which allows it be compressed by a
factor of 1,000, then subsequently spring back to its original state.
Despite its extremely low density, it is black and optically-opaque in
appearance. By contrast, the density of metallic microlattice sits at
0.9 mg per cubic centimeter.

The scientists discovered the sponge-like material
when they were researching three-dimensionally cross-linked carbon
structures. It is reportedly much more robust than the relatively
fragile aerogel, being able to withstand at least 35 times as much
mechanical force for its density. It is grown in a one-step process
using zinc oxide templates, which allow blocks of the material to be
created in various shapes, in sizes as large as several cubic
centimeters.

-------------

Graphene aerogel takes world’s lightest material crown

March 24, 2013

Not even a year after it claimed the title of the world’s lightest
material, aerographite has been knocked off its crown by a new aerogel
made from graphene. Created by a research team from China’s Zhejiang
University in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering lab
headed by Professor Gao Chao, the ultra-light aerogel has a density
lower than that of helium and just twice that of hydrogen.

Although first created in 1931 by American scientist
and chemical engineer, Samuel Stephens Kistler, aerogels have recently
become a hotly contested area of scientific research. A “multiwalled
carbon nanotube (MCNT) aerogel” dubbed “frozen smoke” with a density of 4 mg/cm3 lost its world’s lightest material title in 2011 to a micro-lattice material with a density of 0.9 mg/cm3. Less than a year later, aerographite claimed the crown with its density of 0.18 mg/cm3.

Now a new title-holder has been crowned, with the
graphene aerogel created by Gao and his team boasting a density of just
0.16 mg/cm3. To create the record-setting material, Gao and
his team turned to the wonder material du jour – graphene. Building on
experience in developing macroscopic graphene materials, including
one-dimensional graphene fibers and two-dimensional graphene films, the
team decided to add another dimension and make a three-dimensional
porous material out of graphene in an attempt to claim the record.

Instead of the sol-gel
method and template-oriented methods generally used to create aerogels,
Gao and his team used a new freeze-drying method that involved
freeze-drying solutions of carbon nanotubes and graphene to create a
carbon sponge that can be arbitrarily adjusted to any shape.

Newly developed metallic "micro-lattice" material is world's lightest

November 17, 2011

Researchers have created a new metallic material that they claim is
the world's lightest solid material. With a density of just 0.9 mg/cm3
the material is around 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and lighter than
the "multiwalled carbon nanotube (MCNT) aerogel" - also dubbed "frozen smoke"
- with a density of 4 mg/cm3 that we looked at earlier this year.
Despite being 99.99 percent open volume, the new material boasts
impressive strength and energy absorption, making it potentially useful
for a range of applications.
The 0.01 percent of the material that isn't air
consists of a micro-lattice of interconnected hollow nickel-phosphorous
tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers - or 1,000 times thinner
than a human hair. These tubes are angled to connect at nodes to form
repeating, three-dimensional asterisk-like cells.

Microstructured materials as strong as steel yet less dense than water

April 14, 2014

Researchers in Germany have developed a lightweight, high-strength
material inspired by the framework structure of bones and wood and the
shell structure of bees' honeycombs. Created using 3D laser polymer
printing combined with a ceramic coating, the material is less dense
than water but, relative to its size, boasts strength comparable to
high-performance steel or aluminum.
Although inspired by nature, the polymer
microarchitecture produced by a team at the Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology (KIT) outperforms its natural counterparts in terms of
strength/density ratio. The underlying structure was produced using a
process of 3D laser lithography or polymer printing and hardening.
A number of structures were tested, including
triangular, hexagonal and honeycomb. These were then coated by gas
deposition to provide extra strength, with coatings of a ceramic
material and alumina both tested. The polymer structure measured roughly
50 µm long, wide, and high, while various coating thicknesses were
tested ranging from 10 nm to 200 nm.
It was found that a honeycomb polymer structure with
an alumina coating of 50 nm yielded the highest stability to density
ratio. This microarchitecture outperformed the triangular and hexagonal
counterparts produced and tested, while no additional strength was
achieved after a coating thickness of 50 nm of alumina was exceeded.
This optimized honeycomb structure failed at a pressure of 28 kg/mm2, yet only had a density of 810 kg/m3, which the team says exceeds the stability/density ratio of bones, massive steel or aluminum.
"The novel lightweight construction materials
resemble the framework structure of a half-timbered house with
horizontal, vertical, and diagonal struts,” said study co-author Jens
Bauer. "Our beams, however, are only 10 µm in size.”
The team says microstructured materials are often
used for insulation or as shock absorbers, and that such open-pore
materials can be used as filters in the chemical industry.

New materials developed that are as light as aerogel, yet 10,000 times stronger

Imagine materials strong enough to use in building airplanes or motor
cars, yet are literally lighter than air. Soon, that may not be so hard
to do because a team of researchers from MIT and Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed new ultra-lightweight
materials that are as light as aerogel, but 10,000 times stiffer, and may one day revolutionize aerospace and automotive designs.

Aerogels are incredibly light, so light that the record holder, aerographene, boasts a density of just 0.16 mg/cm3. Currently, aerogels are used for insulation, tennis racquets, as a means of controlling oil spills, and were used on the NASA Stardust
mission to collect samples from a comet’s tail. Unfortunately, despite
its seemingly ephemeral nature, its very much a solid and will shatter
if pressed hard enough, so its use is limited.
The new materials developed by the MIT/LLNL team
aren't aerogels, but are metamaterials. That is, artificial materials
with properties that aren't found in nature. The idea is to structure
it, so that it has the lightness of aerogel, but is much stronger. The
strength of the new materials comes from their geometric structure, not
their chemical composition.
The new materials were made using projection
micro-stereolithography, a form of desktop 3D printing that works on a
microscopic level and can create highly complex, three-dimensional
microstructures layer by layer very quickly for easy prototyping. It
involves projecting a beam of ultraviolet light into a tank of polymers,
responsive hydrogels, shape memory polymers, or bio-materials using the
digital stereolithography technique in the form of masks, similar to
those used to create microchips, to shape the layers.
Projection micro-stereolithography operates on a very
small scale that allows the formation of "microlattices," which are
much like trusses and girders. Materials can even be switched during
fabrication. According to the team, it can be applied to many different
materials, including polymers, metals and ceramics, which is exactly
what the team did using a variety of constituent materials.
Firstly, the LLNL/MIT team made a polymer template
coated with a metal film 200 to 500 nanometers thick, then the polymer
base was melted away, leaving behind the metal in the form of thin-film
tubes.
The team then used the same technique but replaced
the metal with ceramic to create ceramic tubes about 50 nanometers
thick, which produced a material with the properties of an extremely
stiff aerogel, four orders of magnitude stiffer than conventional
aerogel, but with the same density...

Often called "frozen smoke", aerogels
are among the amazing materials of our time, with fifteen Guinness Book
of World Records entries to their name. However, despite their list of
extreme properties, traditional aerogels are brittle, crumbling and
fracturing easily enough to keep them out of many practical
applications. A new class of mechanically robust polymer aerogels
discovered at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio may soon enable
engineering applications such as super-insulated clothing, unique
filters, refrigerators with thinner walls, and super-insulation for
buildings...

New experimental research exposes the strength of beryllium at extreme conditions

August 5, 2015

Until recently, there were very little experimental data about
the behavior of beryllium (Be) at very high pressures and strain rates,
with existing material models predicting very different behaviors in
these regimes. In a successful example of international research
collaboration, a team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) and the Russian Federal Nuclear Center-All-Russian
Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF) changed this
field of knowledge.
The technique involves setting
off a piece of high explosives (HE) near the Be. On the side of the Be
facing the HE, the team imposed a sinusoidal ripple pattern designed by
co-author Jon Belof. When the expanding HE products load up against the
target, the target accelerates. Since there is a low density gas pushing
against a higher density metal, the interface is Rayleigh-Taylor
unstable and the ripples grow in amplitude as the target accelerates.

If
the target has no strength, the ripples will grow indefinitely and
become turbulent at some point. However, since the Be does have
strength, the ripple growth is limited by the strength of the material
itself. The main diagnostic for the experiments is an X-ray image from
the side of the target showing the height of the ripples at some time
after the HE loading has occurred. The other diagnostic is velocimetry
of the target showing its acceleration profile.

---------------------

Bamboo inspires new process for making metals tougher

July 3, 2014

Steel is a common benchmark against which the strength of materials
is measured, with "stronger than steel" a familiar catch cry for those
touting the properties of some new space-age material. But now
researchers at North Carolina State University have created steel that
is stronger than steel using a process that increases the toughness of various metals by altering the microstructures within them.
Inspired by the internal structure of bones and
bamboo, which both boast impressive strength-to-weight ratios, the
researchers were able to increase the strength and toughness of metals
by giving them what the researchers refer to as a "gradient structure."
This is a structure where the size of the millions of tightly-packed
grains that make up the metal are gradually increased further down into
the material...

Hemp is another good natural fiber, we can make for many materials, such as rope, clothing and industrial materials.

------

Comparison of composites made from fungal defibrated hemp with composites of traditional hemp yarn
[2007]

Abstract:
Aligned epoxy-matrix composites were made from hemp fibres defibrated
with the fungi Phlebia radiata Cel 26 and Ceriporiopsis subvermispora
previously used for biopulping of wood. The fibres produced by
cultivation of P. radiata Cel 26 were more cellulose rich (78%, w/w)
than water-retted hemp due to more degradation of pectin and lignin. The
defibrated hemp fibres had higher fibre stiffness (88-94 GPa) than the
hemp yarn (60 GPa), which the fibre twisting in hemp yarn might explain.
Even though mild processing was applied, the obtained fibre strength
(643 MPa) was similar to the strength of traditionally produced hemp
yarn (677 MPa). The fibre strength and stiffness properties are derived
from composite data using the rule of mixtures model. The fibre tensile
strength increased linearly with cellulose content to 850 MPa for pure
cellulose. The fibre stiffness increased also versus the cellulose
content and cellulose crystallinity and reached a value of 125 GPa for
pure crystalline cellulose.

http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201300749080

------------------

Hemp
and cannabis also have nutritional value, this is why you can buy hemp
seeds at the health food store. Hemp and cannaabis can also help treat
people with medical conditions, including cancer.

Wood foam may be a new form of green home insulation

Insulating your home may help the environment by lowering your energy
usage, but unfortunately the petroleum-based foam that's typically used
as insulation isn't all that eco-friendly itself. Researchers
at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, however, have
developed a reportedly greener alternative that they claim works just as
well – it's foam made from wood.

To produce the foam, wood particles are first ground
so small that they form into a slimy solution. A gas is then added to
that slime, causing it to take on a frothy consistency. Once that froth
hardens – a process that is "aided by natural substances contained in
the wood" – a dry, porous foam is the result. The finished product can
take the form of either rigid foam boards, or flexible mats.
The slime can also be converted into foam via induced chemical reactions.

Even
rice can be used, for many fibers. We also need to stop the use of
pesticide buildup, in rice paddies. The use of pesticides in rice, can
harm ecosystems, over a period of many years.

------------

Rice husks may find use in cheaper, greener, longer-lasting particleboard

May 27, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/rice-husk-particleboard/37730/

------------

We could use a number of natural materials for new rope construction technology. We could make more environmentally friendly ropes, with even more tensile strength.

We
could make a better form of carbon fiber. Instead of making carbon
fiber from fossil fuel, we could make carbon fiber out of plant based
material, diamonds or charcoal. We can use the carbon from ash, to make carbon fiber. Samurai
swords were once forged with the method of taking carbon from charcoal,
and making a carbon steel blade.

-----

Secrets of the Samurai Sword - Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoqVhlFe_EU

--------------

Researchers find new phase of carbon, make diamond at room temperature

November 30, 2015

Researchers from North
Carolina State University have discovered a new phase of solid carbon,
called Q-carbon, which is distinct from the known phases of graphite and
diamond. They have also developed a technique for using Q-carbon to
make diamond-related structures at room temperature and at ambient
atmospheric pressure in air.

Diamonds may be the key to future NMR/MRI technologies

December 16, 2015

Researchers
with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley
have demonstrated that diamonds may hold the key to the future for
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
technologies.

Wood pulp extract stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar

The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a
US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals
(CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust.
Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon
fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high
strength, low weight products. In addition, the cost of CNCs is less
than ten percent of the cost of Kevlar fiber or carbon fiber. These
qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in
lightweight armor and ballistic glass (CNCs are transparent), as well as
companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, consumer products,
and medical industries.

---------------------

Biodegradable fibers as strong as steel made from wood cellulose

June 9, 2014

A team of researchers working at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of
Technology claim to have developed a way to make cellulose fibers
stronger than steel on a strength-to-weight basis. In what is touted as a
world first, the team from the institute's Wallenberg Wood Science
Center claim that the new fiber could be used as a biodegradable
replacement for many filament materials made today from imperishable
substances such as fiberglass, plastic, and metal. And all this from a
substance that requires only water, wood cellulose, and common table
salt to create it.

With new technology, we can even fortify carbon, to even make stronger materials, including stronger carbon nanotubes.

----------------

Nanotubes with two walls have singular qualities

April 15, 2015

Rice University researchers have determined that two walls are better
than one when turning carbon nanotubes into materials like strong,
conductive fibers or transistors.

Rice materials scientist Enrique Barrera and his colleagues used
atomic-level models of double-walled nanotubes to see how they might be
tuned for applications that require particular properties. They knew
from others' work that double-walled nanotubes are stronger and stiffer
than their single-walled cousins. But they found it may someday be
possible to tune double-walled tubes for specific electronic properties
by controlling their configuration, chiral angles and the distance
between the walls.

Two-dimensional materials 'as revolutionary as graphene'

July 29, 2016

December 22, 2015

A single infusion of a powerful antibody called VRC01 can
suppress the level of HIV in the blood of infected people who are not
taking antiretroviral therapy (ART), scientists at the National
Institutes of Health report in a paper published today. The researchers
also found that giving HIV-infected people VRC01 antibodies by infusing
them into a vein or under the skin is safe and well tolerated, and the
antibodies remain in the blood for an extended period.
While
such carbon nanotube-polymer nanocomposites have attracted enormous
interest from the materials research community, a group of scientists
now has evidence that a different nanotube—made from boron nitride—could
offer even more strength per unit of weight. They publish their results
in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

Delicately opening a band gap in graphene enables high-performance transistors

September 21, 2015

Electrons can move
through graphene with almost no resistance, a property that gives
graphene great potential for replacing silicon in next-generation,
highly efficient electronic devices. But currently it's very difficult
to control the electrons moving through graphene because graphene has no
band gap, which means the electrons don't need to cross any energy
barrier in order to conduct electricity. As a result, the electrons are
always conducting, all the time, which means that this form of graphene
can't be used to build transistors because it has no "off" state. In
order to control the electron movement in graphene and enable "off"
states in future graphene transistors, graphene needs a non-zero band
gap—an energy barrier that can prevent electrons from conducting
electricity when desired, making graphene a semiconductor instead of a
full conductor.

The waste coffee grounds (The remainder of regular coffee powder after being
boiled,
UCC) was dried at 100 degrees Celsius for 6 hours without other
treatments. Graphene-sheet fibers (GSFs) were fabricated from dried
coffee
grounds loaded in a nickel case using 2.45 GHz microwave plasma system at
the power of 900 W, which was equipped with a rectangular waveguide to couple
the microwave through quartz tube for generating the plasma. In the system, no
additional
heater was installed for substrate heating. The substrate temperature
was controlled by microwave power and plasma exposure time, and was
measured by a thermocouple placed in direct contact with the substrate
holder.
After the deposition chamber was pumped down to a base pressure of 1 Torr
by
a rotary pump with the pumping gas rate of 300L/s, the hydrogen and
argon gases were introduced into the chamber and produced the plasma to
irradiate the coffee grounds for 15 min. The maximal temperature was 650
degrees Celsius during the process of microwave plasma irradiation.
After deposition, the plasma was shut down and the equipment was
naturally cooled to room temperature. The yield of GSFs was found to be
10-20% in all produced nanocarbons.

http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/c5/ta/c5ta03833b/c5ta03833b1.pdf

-------

Scientists grow high-quality graphene from tea tree extract

August 21, 2015

Graphene
has been grown from materials as diverse as plastic, cockroaches, Girl
Scout cookies, and dog feces, and can theoretically be grown from any
carbon source. However, scientists are still looking for a graphene
precursor and growth method that is sustainable, scalable, and
economically feasible, since these are all requirements for realizing
widespread commercialization of graphene-based devices.

There
will always be different combinations of natural and inorganic
materials, for the discovery of new hybrid materials and nanostructures.
These discoveries, can be used for the creation of new inventions.

---------

Synthesis and characterization of organic-inorganic hybrid materials and nanostructures

Posted: June 24, 2015

http://www.scientificamerican.com/naturejobs/?method=job&id=533011

The project supported by the Swedish Research Council is aimed at the
development of new approaches to building up complex structures of metal
oxide nanoparticles to be used as nano reactors and as drug delivery
vehicles. The produced particles will be decorated with functional
biomolecules, proteins and enzymes, to provide them with ability to act
as biocatalysts. It will involve the synthesis of new organic-inorganic
hybrid materials, their characterization by a variety of techniques such
as electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and NMR, Atomic Force
Microscopy etc., and verification of their functional characteristics.
The project will be carried out in an inspiring international
environment and will involve active participation in international
project meetings.

-----------

We need to have a grade of high-density, bio-degrdable plastic, that we can use for materials.

--------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 8: Glass technology

----------------
----------------

---------------------

We
can see problems with many of the different types of dyes, and
chemicals used to make certain types of glass and plastics these days.
We often wonder how many new types of industrial chemicals in glass and
plastic, will interact and biodegrade in the wild. We need an
ecologically friendly way of making glass, while replacing many
chemicals, such as the use of lead, and uranium in glass.Many
ancient cultures, such as the Romans, would use lead in glass. Even
drinking out of certain glass bottles with harmful chemicals in these
ancient cultures, could make that individual ill, from chemical
poisoning.

-------------------------

Carnival Glass 101

http://carnivalglass101.carnivalheaven.com/id136.ht

If
you look at the recipe that remains from E. A. Dugan's notebook (page
26 of the Dugan/Diamond book by Heacock, Measell & Wiggins), for a
turquoise blue opal glass, you have 300 parts sand (silica), 81 parts
soda (calcium carbonate), 50 parts lead (most likely lead oxide), 24
parts pearls (potassium phosphate), 54 parts feldspar (most likely
potassium aluminum silicate), 50 parts fluorspar (calcium fluoride), 5
parts kryolite (sodium fluoraluminate),-actually used as a stomach
insecticide as the crystals punch holes in insect gut cells!), 5 parts
arsenic, and 7 oz. of copper scales (for the blue color). As you can
tell from this formula, there's a lot more lead and fluoride than
arsenic in the batch and the dust during the mixing of the batch would
be quite dangerous. However, once fused in the melting process, none of
these chemicals would be chemically active. If they were, all of our
lead crystal glass would be highly dangerous to use! (That rumor goes
around occasionally).

I hear all the time that cobalt
(blue), selenium (pink to red) and uranium (yellow) compounds that are
used as colorants in glass are highly toxic or are no longer available.

--------------------------------

Many
people sometimes are not aware, that plastics exist in nature. This
process is, a buildup of natural oil hitting certain pockets of heat,
methane, including other chemicals such as silica, in the ground. When
the right type of chemicals combine, it can leave small types of a type
of residue of an oily or plastic type of film. Especially around rocks
and soil, in underground pockets or streams of natural oil. This natural
type of plastic film, may not quite be like the plastic that we use for
individual products, yet is a good example of the materials, that
nature can produce naturally.

Glass
can be made from sand, that has gone through
extreme hot temperatures. Different types of smart glass, can contain
certain poly resins as well. Many types of glass, can even be considered
a fiberglass, or plastic. Many people want a sustainable way, in
order to make extra strong glass, that could biodegrade properly.

We could even possibly use atomic fractals in metallic glasses, over certain types of fiberglass, currently out on the market.

-----------------------------------------------

Atomic fractals in metallic glasses

September 21, 2015

Metallic
glasses are very strong and elastic materials that appear with the
naked eye to be identical to stainless steel. But metallic glasses
differ from ordinary metals in that they are amorphous, lacking an
orderly, crystalline atomic arrangement. This random distribution of
atoms, which is the primary characteristic of all glass materials (such
as windowpanes and tableware), gives metallic glasses unique mechanical
properties but unpredictable internal structure. Researchers in the
Caltech lab of Julia Greer, professor of materials science and mechanics
in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, have shown that
metallic glasses do have an atomic-level structure—if you zoom in
closely enough—although it differs from the periodic lattices that
characterize crystalline metals.

Improving bulk metallic glass by maximizing surface

December 22, 2015

Yale
University researchers have figured out a way to refine bulk metallic
glasses to improve their electrochemical performance.

Results
of the research, based in the lab of chemical and environmental
engineering professor André D. Taylor, are published in the Dec. 21
issue of Advanced Materials.

Bulk metallic glass (BMG),
also known as amorphous metal alloy, exhibits superior mechanical
properties and great formability under low temperature compared with
general alloys. Numerous efforts have been applied to develop these
materials for biomedical devices, high efficiency transformers, and for
products that require high-strength materials, such as golf clubs.

Working
with the lab of Yale professor Jan Schroers, Taylor pioneered the use
of BMGs as catalysts in fuel cells. BMGs have the strength of metal, but
can be shaped like a plastic, so they can be used to form nanowires and
achieve high-surface areas. Increasing surface area leads to an
increased performance in current density, because all of the
electrochemical reactions are on the surface.

Microscopic animals inspire innovative glass research

September 3, 2015

Prof.
Juan de Pablo's 20-year exploration of the unusual properties of glass
began, oddly enough, with the microscopic animals known as water bears.

The
creatures, which go by the more formal name of tardigrades, have a
remarkable ability to withstand extreme environments of hot and cold,
and even the vacuum of space. When de Pablo read about what happens when
scientists dry out tardigrades, then revive them with water years
later, his interest was piqued.

"When you remove the
water, they very quickly coat themselves in large amounts of glassy
molecules," says de Pablo, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular
Engineering at the University of Chicago. "That's how they stay in this
state of suspended animation."

His passion to
understand how glass forms in such exotic settings helped lead de Pablo
and his fellow researchers to the unexpected discovery of a new type of
glass.

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microscopic-animals-glass.html#jCp

------------

Super-tough glass based on mollusk shells

January 29, 2014

In the future, if you drop a glass on the floor and it doesn't break,
thank a mollusk. Inspired by shellfish, scientists at Montreal's McGill
University have devised a new process that drastically increases the
toughness of glass. When dropped, items made using the technology would
be more likely to deform than to shatter.

Tough-as-nails ceramic inspired by mother-of-pearl

Although you may know it simply as the shiny iridescent stuff on the inside of mollusk shells, mother-of-pearl (or nacre)
is a remarkable material. It allows those shells, which otherwise
consist almost entirely of brittle calcium carbonate, to stand up to the
abuses of life in the sea. Now, a team led by the Laboratoire de
Synthèse et Fonctionnalisation des Céramiques (CNRS) in Paris, has
copied the structure of nacre to create a ceramic material that's almost
10 times stronger than conventional ceramics.
Natural nacre consists of layers of microscopic
tablet-like blocks, that have wavy edges not unlike jig-saw puzzle
pieces. This means that when the material is subjected to mechanical
stress, any cracks that start to form in the boundary lines between the
tablets have to follow a very circuitous route. As a result, all but the
largest cracks simply just peter out.
Scientists at Montreal's McGill University recently created super-strong glass,
by etching nacre boundary line-like cracks in glass microscope slides.
The CNRS team, however, took a different approach with the ceramic.
They started with a ceramic powder, made up of
microscopic alumina platelets. That powder was suspended in water, and
the resulting solution was then frozen. The ice crystallization process
caused the platelets to self-assemble into stacks, the boundaries
between which were similar to the wavy boundaries between nacre tablets.
A high-temperature process was then used to increase the density of the
material, thus removing the water.
In lab tests of the resulting ceramic, it was found
that cracks had great difficulty spreading through it – as is the case
with real nacre.
Additionally, the scientists state that the process
should work with any type of ceramic powder (not just alumina), and it
should be easy to scale up to industrial production levels. Besides
simply making existing types of ceramic items stronger, the technology
could also allow them to stay at the same strength, but be made much
smaller.

-------------

New kind of smart-glass changes color and produces electricity

April 9, 2015

Many types of smart-glass
have been created, some that display a tint when it gets sunny out,
others that change to prevent heat from coming in, etc. In this new
effort, the researchers sought to add something new—production of
electricity. Realizing that many types of glass are subjected to rain
and wind, they sought to find a way to coat a window that would take
advantage of triboelectrics—capturing the energy in static electricity
that occurs when two materials meet.

'Smart
glass' can switch from transparent to opaque at the flick of a switch
and is increasingly used in cars, aircraft and homes to reduce the Sun's
glare and filter out infrared light and heat. Masaki Nakano and
colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science have now
used vanadium dioxide to make a transparent material that can be
activated to block infrared light without affecting its transparency for
visible light.

Vanadium dioxide is a
well-known thermochromic material that is transparent below about 30 °C
and reflects infrared light above 60 °C. This transition is related to a
change in crystal structure that also results in a shift from
electrically insulating properties at lower temperatures to conductive
properties at higher temperatures.

Ultrathin metasurface lenses do things conventional optics can't

Once, the only way to manipulate light was with the use of a transparent
glass or plastic lens whose shape and makeup determined such things as
focus,
magnification, and polarity. However, to incorporate all of these properties in
the one optical system required a large and complex collection of multiple
lenses to achieve. Now researchers working at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech) have created a flat silicon metamaterial lens
that manages all of these thing in a microminiaure device that
electromagnetically controls the properties of any light passing it.

Using an arrangement of silicon nanopillars organized into a honeycomb pattern to form a
"metasurface" able to control the direction and attributes of light
waves, the new device may one day be mass-produced using much the same methods employed to create computer chips today.
As such, the researchers believe that applications
for their creation may include cutting-edge microscopes, displays,
sensors, and cameras that could all take advantage of the superior
characteristics of high-quality lenses at a fraction of the price.

As
you ease your foot off the accelerator, a radar sensor detects how far
away you are from the other cars and intelligently adjusts your speed
appropriately. Technology like this is already helping to improve road
safety and is set to become even more commonplace. From an electrical
engineering perspective, manufacturing sensors of this kind is an
extremely tricky process: the sensors have to be able to operate at very
high frequencies but still need to be precise and efficient. TU Wien
has now managed to develop a new processing technology for the
high-precision nanostructuring of glass ceramic circuit boards. This
means that the material properties can be adjusted, thereby
significantly improving the electromagnetic behaviour of the sensor.

Stretchable, transparent heater made from metallic glass

January 7, 2016

Researchers
have fabricated a stretchable and transparent electrode that can be
used for applications such as heating parts of the body and defrosting
the side view mirrors on cars. It is the first stretchable electronics
device made from metallic glass, which is a metal that has an amorphous
(disordered) structure like that of a glass, instead of the highly
ordered crystalline structure that metals normally have.

The Glass Age, Part 1: Flexible, Bendable Glass

Some question the toxicity in some of the glass, mentioned in the following video, "The Glass Age."

------------------

The Glass Age, Part 2: Strong, Durable Glass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13B5K_lAabw

-----------------------

World's Strongest Materials - New Full History HD Documentary

Nov 12, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwVlOLnqNaQ

--------------------------

Space-Age Materials, One Atomic Layer at a Time

08.10.12

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/atomic-layer_prt.htm

A
technologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.,
however, is experimenting with an emerging technology that might provide
another, perhaps more effective, technique for defending sensitive
spacecraft components from the high-velocity bombardments.

Vivek
Dwivedi and his collaborator, chemical engineering professor Raymond
Adomaitis from the University of Maryland, College Park, are using
atomic layer deposition (ALD) — a rapidly evolving technology for
coating plastics, semiconductors, glass, Teflon, and a plethora of other
materials — to create a new super-strong, ultra-thin coating made of
tiny tubes of boron nitride, similar in appearance to the bristles on a
toothbrush.

''Crystalline boron nitride is one of the
hardest materials in the world,'' Dwivedi said, making it ideal as a
coating to make sensitive spacecraft component less susceptible to
damage when struck by space dust, tiny rocks, and high-energy solar
particles.

Atomic Layer Deposition

The
ALD technique, which the semiconductor industry has adopted in its
manufacturing of computer chips, involves placing a substrate material
inside a reactor chamber and sequentially pulsing different types of
precursor gases to create an ultrathin film whose layers are literally
no thicker than a single atom.

ALD differs from other
techniques for applying thin films because the process is split into two
half reactions, is run in sequence, and is repeated for each layer. As a
result, technicians can accurately control the thickness and
composition of the deposited films, even deep inside pores and cavities.
This gives ALD a unique ability to coat in and around 3-D objects. This
advantage — coupled with the fact that technologists can create films
at much lower temperatures than with the other techniques — has led many
in the optics, electronics, energy, textile, and biomedical-device
fields to replace older deposition techniques with ALD.

According
to Dwivedi, if technicians use ALD to coat glass with aluminum oxide,
for example, they can strengthen glass by more than 80 percent. The
resulting thin films act like ''nano putty,'' filling the
nanometer-scale defects found in glass — the very same tiny cracks that
cause glass to break when struck by an object. ''This ALD application
has profound possibilities for the next-generation crew modules,''
Dwivedi said. ''We could decrease the thickness of the glass windows
without sacrificing strength.''

----------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 9: Light Energy

----------------
----------------

---------------------

We can use light energy, for an abundance of new technology applications.

----------------------

Physicists make first observation of the pushing pressure of light

Jun 02, 2015

For more than 100 years, scientists have debated the question:
when light travels through a medium such as oil or water, does it pull
or push on the medium? While most experiments have found that light
exerts a pulling pressure, in a new paper physicists have, for the first
time, found evidence that light exerts a pushing pressure.

An
international team led by Radboud University physicists has discovered
that reversing the poles of magnets must be possible without a heating
or a magnetic field.. A strong pulse of light can have a direct effect
on the strong quantum mechanical 'exchange interaction', therefore
changing the magnetism (Nature Communications, 16 September 2015).

It's
easy to contemplate the wave nature of light in common experience.
White light passing through a prism spreads out into constituent colors;
it diffracts from atmospheric moisture into a rainbow; light passing
across a sharp edge or a diffraction grating creates an interference
pattern. It's harder to fathom the wave behavior of things usually
thought of as particles, such as electrons and atoms. And yet these
matter waves play a role in physics and in technology. For example,
electron beams, manifested as waves, provide an important form of
microscopy.

A
team of researchers from the University of St Andrews and the
University of York has slowed down the speed of light in a process which
could have major applications in fundamental science and medical
diagnosis.

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microscopic-world.html#jCp

--------------

Physicists stop and store light traveling in an optical fiber

May 11, 2015

Researchers at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris have managed to
store light that propagates in an optical fiber and to release it later
on demand. By causing interaction between the traveling light and a few
thousand atoms in the vicinity, they demonstrated an all-fibered memory.

----------------------

Physicists Prove Teleportation of Energy Is Possible

February 4, 2010

Over five years ago, scientists succeeded in teleporting information.
Unfortunately, the advance failed to bring us any closer to the Star Trek
future we all dream of. Now, researchers in Japan have used the same
principles to prove that energy can be teleported in the same fashion as
information. Rather than just hastening the dawn of quantum computing,
this development could lead to practical, significant changes in energy
distribution.

----------------

Physicists break distance record for quantum teleportation

September 22, 2015

Researchers
at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have
"teleported" or transferred quantum information carried in light
particles over 100 kilometers (km) of optical fiber, four times farther
than the previous record.

----------------

Image captures light as both wave and particle for very first time

March 2, 2015

In 1905, Albert Einstein provided an explanation of the photoelectric
effect – that various metals emit electrons when light is shined on
them – by suggesting that a beam of light is not simply a wave of
electromagnetic radiation, but is also made up of discrete packets of
energy called photons. Though a long accepted tenet in physics, no
experiment has ever directly observed this wave/particle duality. Now,
however, researchers at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
(EPFL) in Switzerland claim to have captured an image of this phenomenon
for the first time ever.

To achieve this, a team of researchers led by Assistant
Professor Fabrizio Carbone at EPFL has performed an experiment using
electrons to image light.
In essence, the team used extremely short (femtosecond)
pulses of laser light directed at a miniscule nanowire made of silver
and suspended on graphene film that acted as an electrical isolator (or
metal-graphene dielectric). The laser light pumped energy into the
system that then directly affected the charged particles in the
nanowire, causing them to vibrate and effectively making the nanowire
behave as what is known as a quasi-1D plasmonic nanoantenna.

In other words, the nanowire acted as a tiny antenna that
generated radiation patterns in sympathy with the received laser
excitation. This laser light then oscillated back-and-forth between the
two ends of the nanoantenna and, in so doing, set up a standing wave of
surface plasmon polaritons (electromagnetic waves that travel along the
surface of a metal-dielectric or metal-air interface) in the wire.
Put simply, the light traveled along the wire in two
opposite directions and, when these waves bounced back to the middle,
they intersected with each other to form a new wave that appeared to be
standing in place. This standing wave, radiating around the nanowire,
then became the source of light used in the experiment.
Next, the researchers aimed a stream of electrons into
the field generated around the nanowire, and used them to image the
standing wave of light. When the electrons intermingled with the
restrained light contained on the nanowire – that is, where they crashed
into individual photons – they either sped up (gained energy) or slowed
down (lost energy).

The team then used an imaging filter to select out only
those electrons that had gained energy, and focused a UTEM (ultrafast
transmission electron microscopy) instrument on these to image where
each of the changes in energy state occurred, thereby allowing them to
visualize the standing wave and make visible the physical makeup of the
wave-nature of the light.

Simultaneously, this also demonstrated the particle
nature of the imaged light by demonstrating that the change in speed of
the interacting electrons and photons shows as an exchange of energy
"packets" (quanta) between the electrons and the photons. This
demonstrated that the light on the nanowire was also behaving as
particles.

"This experiment demonstrates that, for the first time
ever, we can film quantum mechanics – and its paradoxical nature –
directly," said Professor Carbone.

http://www.gizmag.com/first-photograph-light-particle-wave/36361/

---------

Video camera could record indefinitely, powered only by light from the image it captures

April 16, 2015

By using the light reflected from the object being recorded, researchers
claim to have created a prototype video camera that could potentially
record indefinitely under its own power. By incorporating
energy-harvesting photodiodes within the pixels of its image-capture
array, the new camera produces self-sustaining electrical power while
simultaneously capturing video footage.

Optical metacage blocks light from entering or escaping

December 2, 2015

Physicists have
built a nanowire cage that blocks one or more wavelengths of light from
either entering or escaping, yet allows liquids and gases to pass
through the small gaps between the nanowires. The "optical metacage"
takes advantage of the optical properties of nanowire structures, and
could have applications including protecting microorganisms from
radiation, optically shielding nanophotonics components, and
laser-driven drug delivery.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-optical-metacage-blocks.html

--------------

Ringing in a new way to measure and modulate trapped light

December 22, 2015

Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) have developed a novel way to noninvasively measure
and map how and where trapped light vibrates within microscale optical
resonators.

The new technique not only makes for more accurate
measurements but also allows scientists to fine-tune the trapped light's
frequency by subtly altering the shape of the resonator itself.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-modulate.html

----------------

August 17, 2015

Scientists have demonstrated that pinwheel-shaped microgears floating
on a liquid surface can rotate at speeds of up to 300 r.p.m. when
illuminated by an ordinary LED. This light-driven motion, which arises
because the light creates a tiny temperature difference and,
subsequently, a surface tension difference in the surrounding fluid, is
about five orders of magnitude more efficient than other mechanisms that
convert light into work. As the effect is not size-dependent, the
scientists expect that the system could be scaled to both the macroscale
and the nanoscale.

-----------------

A molecular light switch?... Just add water

December 16, 2015

A bit of stray moisture during an experiment tipped off scientists
about the strange behavior of a complex oxide material they were
studying—shedding light on its potential for improving chemical sensors,
computing and information storage. In the presence of a water molecule
on its surface, the layered material emits ultraviolet light from its
interior. A team of researchers from Drexel University, the University
of Pennsylvania, the University of California at Berkeley, and Temple
University recently published its discovery that it is possible to
control UV light production via a chemical reaction that functions like
flipping a light switch.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-molecular.html

--------------

One-way light beam can be steered in different directions

January 11, 2016

Over the past few years, scientists have demonstrated the phenomenon of
"one-way light," in which a light beam propagates in one direction
only. The materials used to achieve this effect can be thought of as
optical diodes, in analogy to the diodes used in electric circuits that
allow an electric current to travel in one direction while prohibiting
it from traveling in the opposite direction. One-way light could play an
important role in integrated photonic circuits, which perform
operations using beams of light instead of an electric current.

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-one-way.html

-----------

Light propagates through the surface of new photonic crystal without being scattered

September 18, 2015

NIMS MANA researchers elucidated a new principle whereby
electromagnetic waves including light propagate on the surface of a
photonic crystal without being scattered.

-----------------

"Solid" light reveals new insights about quantum mechanics

September 18, 2014

Researchers at Princeton University have devised a method for giving
light the properties of liquids and solids, with huge potential
ramifications in the study of quantum mechanics and other areas of
physics.

Researchers at Imperial College London have devised a method of
achieving light to matter transformation at power levels orders of
magnitude lower than previously thought possible...

---------------

Light and matter merge in quantum coupling

August 22, 2016

Where light and matter intersect, the world illuminates. Where light and matter interact so strongly that they become one, they illuminate a world of new physics, according to Rice University scientists.

Rice physicists are closing in on a way to create a new condensed matter state in which all the electrons in a material act as one by manipulating them with light and a magnetic field. The effect made possible by a custom-built, finely tuned cavity for terahertz radiation shows one of the strongest light-matter coupling phenomena ever observed.

The work by Rice physicist Junichiro Kono and his colleagues is described in Nature Physics. It could help advance technologies like quantum computers and communications by revealing new phenomena to those who study cavity quantum electrodynamics and condensed matter physics, Kono said.

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-merge-quantum-coupling.html#jCp

----------------

For faster battery charging, try a quantum battery?

August 3, 2015

Physicists have shown that a quantum battery—basically, a quantum
system such as a qubit that stores energy in its quantum states—can
theoretically be charged at a faster rate than conventional batteries.
This "quantum speedup" arises from quantum entanglement among multiple
qubits, which essentially provides a shortcut between the qubits'
uncharged and charged states, allowing for faster charging.

Stanford breakthrough heralds super-efficient light-based computers

May 28, 2015

Light can transmit more data while consuming far less
power than electricity, and an engineering feat brings optical data
transport closer to replacing wires.

Infrared light enters this silicon structure from the left. The cut-out
patterns, determined by an algorithm, route two different frequencies of
this light into the pathways on the right. This is a greatly magnified
image of a working device that is about the size of a speck of dust.

Quantum computer that 'computes without running' sets efficiency record

August 31, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-quantum-efficiency.html

Due
to quantum effects, it's possible to build a quantum computer that
computes without running—or as the scientists explain, "the result of a
computation may be learned without actually running the computer." So
far, however, the efficiency of this process, which is called
counterfactual computation (CFC), has had an upper limit of 50%,
limiting its practical applications.

Now in a
new paper, scientists have experimentally demonstrated a slightly
different version called a "generalized CFC" that has an efficiency of
85% with the potential to reach 100%. This improvement opens the doors
to realizing a much greater variety of applications, such as low-light
medical X-rays and the imaging of delicate biological cells and
proteins—in certain cases, using only a single photon.

--------------

Breakthrough rectenna converts light into DC current

September 30, 2015

Rectifying antennas – "rectennas" – are used as parasitic power capture
devices that absorb radio frequency (RF) energy and convert it into
usable electrical power. Constructing such devices to absorb and rectify
at optical wavelengths has proved impractical in the past, but the
advent of carbon nanotubes
and advances in microscopic manufacturing technology have allowed
engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to create rectennas
that capture and convert light to direct electrical current. The
researchers believe that their creation may eventually help double the
efficiency of solar energy harvesting.

Engineers demo first processor that uses light for ultrafast communications

December 23, 2015

Engineers have successfully married electrons and
photons within a single-chip microprocessor, a landmark development that
opens the door to ultrafast, low-power data crunching.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-demo-processor-ultrafast.html#jCp

---------

Internet by light promises to leave Wi-Fi eating dust

February 23, 2016

Connecting your
smartphone to the web with just a lamp—that is the promise of Li-Fi,
featuring Internet access 100 times faster than Wi-Fi with revolutionary
wireless technology.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-internet-wi-fi.html#nRlv

-------------

Are sound waves a better way to move data?

November 6, 2015

Researchers from the University of Leeds and Sheffield University
have created a way to move data through magnetic nanowires by using
surface acoustic waves as the motivating force. Being developed for use
in so-called racetrack solid-state memory,
the researchers claim that using sound waves for data transfer should
markedly increase computer processing speeds while vastly reducing power
consumption.
Developed by IBM, racetrack memory (where data runs
up and down a track of wires like race cars, hence the name) uses the
transition between different magnetic moments (directions) in the domain
walls separating each of the magnetic areas found in the nanowires that
make up the memory. As each transition between these areas results in
an angular displacement (a change of magnetic "direction") of 90 or 180
degrees, the racetrack memory allocates a one or zero to each of these
changes to represent binary data along the length of the wire.

Material that could revolutionize memory storage is magnetic, but not as we know it

November 2, 2015

Using a type of magnetic insulator material that normally doesn’t conduct
electricity, scientists working at Stanford University and the Department of
Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have shown that electric currents
can still be made to flow along the borders of the grains within the material. This latest research
not only validates a long-held belief that magnetic insulators could be used to
conduct electricity, but offers a more tantalizing possibility of creating
highly-efficient magnetic memory devices.

Magnetic substructure leads way to superfast and precise data storage

January 12, 2015

With a surprising discovery, an international team of
scientists from Radboud University, Switzerland and Japan demonstrates
the feasibility of selective magnetization switching inside a
microstructure by using laser light. Their findings open opportunities
for very-high-density information storage media.

Making a new generation of memristors for digital memory and computation

February 3, 2016

Memristors
are a new class of electrical circuits—and they could end the silicon
era and change electronics forever. Since HP first developed a working
prototype with a titanium dioxide film in 2008, engineers have sought to
perfect the model.

Now, researchers at Michigan
Technological University have made an ideal memristor based on
molybdenum disulfide nanosheets. Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Carroll
McArthur Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, led the
research, which was published in Nano Letters this January.

Beyond Binary Code

Transistors
based on silicon, which is the main component of computer chips, work
using a flow of electrons. If the flow of electrons is interrupted in a
transistor, all information is lost. However, memristors are electrical
devices with memory; their resistance is dependent on the dynamic
evolution of internal state variables. In other words, memristors can
remember the amount of charge that was flowing through the material and
retain the data even when the power is turned off.

"Memristors can be used to create super-fast memory chips with more data at less energy consumption" Hu says.

Additionally,
a transistor is confined by binary codes—all the ones and zeros that
run the internet, Candy Crush games, Fitbits and home computers. In
contrast, memristors function in a similar way to a human brain using
multiple levels, actually every number between zero and one. Memristors
will lead to a revolution for computers and provide a chance to create
human-like artificial intelligence.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-memristors-digital-memory.html#nRlv

-------------

Precise molecular fingerprinting on the fly

December 22, 2015

Electro-optic modulators, which can switch light on and off
within just picoseconds, are enabling ever faster telecommunication over
optical glass fibres, so that large movies can be streamed more
smoothly across oceans into our homes. The same tools have now been
harnessed for high-speed and accurate molecular sensing, as reported by
an international collaboration around Dr. Nathalie Picqué, Max Planck
Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich,
in a letter published in Nature Photonics, 21 December 2015. The
collaboration partners are with the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire
Carnot de Bourgogne (France) and the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires
d'Orsay (France).
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-precise-molecular-fingerprinting.html

----------------

World's smallest beamsplitter paves way toward computing at the speed of light

May 18, 2015

Silicon photonics is an emerging technology that incorporates electronic
circuits using photons of laser light rather
than electrons to transmit, receive, and manipulate information. As
such, a silicon photonic CPU could potentially
process information at the speed of light – millions of times faster
than computers available today. In a step towards this goal, engineers
working at the University of Utah have developed an ultra-compact
photonic beam-splitter
so small that millions of these devices could fit on a single silicon
chip.

We can make applications for light energy even more broken down, with the splitting of electrons.

-----

When an electron splits in two

May 12, 2015

As an elementary particle, the electron cannot be
broken down into smaller particles, at least as far as is currently
known. However, in a phenomenon called electron fractionalization, in
certain materials an electron can be broken down into smaller "charge
pulses," each of which carries a fraction of the electron's charge.
Although electron fractionalization has many interesting implications,
its origins are not well understood. -

- Gaining a better understanding of electron
fractionalization could have a variety of implications for research in
condensed matter physics, such as controlling single-electron currents
in one-dimensional wires.

The experiment reveals that, when a single electron fractionalizes into
two pulses, the final state cannot be described as a single-particle
state, but rather as a collective state composed of several excitations.
For this reason, the fractionalization process destroys the original
electron particle. Electron destruction can be measured by the
decoherence of the electron's wave packet.

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-electron.html#jCp

--------

Researchers first to create a single-molecule diode

May 25, 2015

Under the direction of Latha Venkataraman, associate professor
of applied physics at Columbia Engineering, researchers have designed a
new technique to create a single-molecule diode, and, in doing so, they
have developed molecular diodes that perform 50 times better than all
prior designs. Venkataraman's group is the first to develop a
single-molecule diode that may have real-world technological
applications for nanoscale devices. Their paper, "Single-Molecule Diodes
with High On-Off Ratios through Environmental Control," is published
May 25 in Nature Nanotechnology. "Our
new approach created a single-molecule diode that has a high (>250)
rectification and a high "on" current (~ 0.1 micro Amps)," says
Venkataraman. "Constructing a device where the active elements are only a
single molecule has long been a tantalizing dream in nanoscience. This
goal, which has been the 'holy grail' of molecular electronics ever
since its inception with Aviram and Ratner's 1974 seminal paper,
represents the ultimate in functional miniaturization that can be
achieved for an electronic device."
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-single-molecule-diode.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

In
quantum physics, some scientists claim that if you were able to
pinpoint physical particles in a beam of light or a lazer, then connect
or stretch those particles back to the source where the light
originated. That it could be possible to send physical particles, from
one location, to another. This could be achieved, at close to the speed
of light, or even faster. Some even claim that plasma, or portals, may be the way of the future, for space travel.

Scientists At NASA Announce That Space Portals Actually Do Exist

The
bizarre nature of reality as laid out by quantum theory has survived
another test, with scientists performing a famous experiment and proving
that reality does not exist until it is measured.

Physicists
at The Australian National University (ANU) have conducted John
Wheeler's delayed-choice thought experiment, which involves a moving
object that is given the choice to act like a particle or a wave.
Wheeler's experiment then asks - at which point does the object decide?

Common
sense says the object is either wave-like or particle-like, independent
of how we measure it. But quantum physics predicts that whether you
observe wave like behavior (interference) or particle behavior (no
interference) depends only on how it is actually measured at the end of
its journey. This is exactly what the ANU team found.

Best of Last Week – A way to measure variations in the speed of light, a slower universe and plucking hair
Apr 13, 2015

(Phys.org)—It
was a big week for physics. First, a trio of researchers proposed a
method to measure variations in the speed of light—in alternative
theories of cosmology where it has been theorized that time and space
can vary. Also, another team showed that the "quantum freezing
phenomenon" is universal—this describes conditions in which quantum
correlations can be "frozen" in a constant state and remain that way in
the presence of noise. Meanwhile another team suggested that
"unparticles" may provide a new path to superconductivity—the
hypothetical form of matter, the researchers suggest, could play a key
role in mediating superconductivity.

Mar 10, 2015

The
world's first entirely light-based memory chip to store data
permanently has been developed by material scientists at Oxford
University and University of Münster in collaboration with scientists at
Karlsruhe and Exeter. The device, which makes use of materials used in
CDs and DVDs, could help dramatically improve the speed of modern
computing
Today's computers are held back by the relatively slow
transmission of electronic data between the processor and the memory.
"There's no point using faster processors if the limiting factor is the
shuttling of information to-and-from the memory—the so-called
von-Neumann bottleneck," explains Professor Harish Bhaskaran, the Oxford
engineer who led the research along with Professor Wolfram Pernice from
the University of Münster. "But we think using light can significantly
speed this up."

Simply bridging the processor-memory
gap with photons isn't efficient, though, because of the need to convert
them back into electronic signals at each end. Instead, memory and
processing capabilities would need be light-based too. Researchers have
tried to create this kind of photonic memory before, but the results
have always been volatile, requiring power in order to store data. For
many applications—such as computer disk drives—it's essential to be able
to store data indefinitely, with or without power.

Unparticles may provide a new path to superconductivity

Apr 07, 2015

(Phys.org)—Physicists have proposed that a hypothetical form of matter
called "unparticles" may play a key role in mediating
superconductivity—the ability of certain materials to conduct
electricity with zero resistance.

We
can use energy from the sun, including materials that can bend and
fluctuate, to create and store energy. This type of energy, is mentioned
in our next book, in the chapter titled "Piezoelectric energy."
---------

Energy-Harvesting "Piezo-tree" to Produce Renewable Energy

Chemistry student makes sun harvest breakthrough

May 06, 2015

- The group is working with molecules known as the
dihydroazulene-vinylheptafulvene system. Put very simply, this stores
energy by changing shape, but every time the Brøndsted group managed to
design improved molecules, the molecules lost some of their ability to
hold their energy storage configuration, says professor Brøndsted."Regardless
of what we did to prevent it, the molecules would change their shape
back and release the stored energy after just an hour or two. Anders'
achievement was that he managed to double the energy density in a
molecule that can hold its shape for a hundred years. Our only problem
now is how we get it to release the energy again. The molecule does not
seem to want to change its shape back again," says Mogens Brøndsted...
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-chemistry-student-sun-harvest-breakthrough.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

---------

Magnetic Effect of Light Could Lead to New Solar Panels Technology

April 19, 2011

The great side about physics is that it discovers things where you would
least expect them to be found. For example, just when you thought you
knew everything about light, here comes an exciting new discovery that
could become an alternative source of power, involving the magnetic
properties of light!

Chemists find new way to do light-driven reactions in solar energy quest

August 6, 2015

Chemists
have found a new, more efficient method to perform light-driven
reactions, opening up another possible pathway to harness sunlight for
energy. The journal Science is publishing the new method, which is based
on plasmon - a special motion of electrons involved in the optical
properties of metals.

For
more information on light energy, and how we can entangle giant
objects, such as asteroids, with light and mirrors, view the chapter in our next book, titled Pollution Science 101 - 'Energy Science 101." Sound waves, can be used for a number of scientific
applications, as well.

--------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 10: Solar & Hydrogen power

----------------
----------------

---------------------

It
is possible to make silicone for Solar panels, out of plant based
materials. Many think this is a more sustainable way of making portable
solar panels, instead of the current methods on how most solar panels
are produced.

-------------

New shortcut to solar cells: Discovery employs electrodes as catalysts to make black silicon

May 13, 2015

An
electron microscope image shows fine, light-absorbing pores and spikes
created in minutes on the surface of a silicon wafer for solar cells.
Gold electrodes do double duty in the black silicon process developed by
scientists at Rice University by serving as a catalyst to etch the
surface in minutes.

Researchers create solar cells with record energy performance

Jun 05, 2015

Reshaping the solar spectrum to turn light to electricity

July 28, 2015

- "The infrared region of the solar spectrum passes
right through the photovoltaic materials that make up today's solar
cells," explained Christopher Bardeen, a professor of chemistry. The
research was a collaborative effort between him and Ming Lee Tang, an
assistant professor of chemistry. "This is energy lost, no matter how
good your solar cell. The hybrid material we have come up with first
captures two infrared photons that would normally pass right through a
solar cell without being converted to electricity, then adds their
energies together to make one higher energy photon. This upconverted
photon is readily absorbed by photovoltaic cells, generating electricity
from light that normally would be wasted."Bardeen
added that these materials are essentially "reshaping the solar
spectrum" so that it better matches the photovoltaic materials used
today in solar cells. The ability to utilize the infrared portion of the
solar spectrum could boost solar photovoltaic efficiencies by 30
percent or more.

New way to store solar energy could lead to more common solar cell usage

September 15, 2015

Researchers at
Missouri University of Science and Technology have developed a
relatively inexpensive and simple way to split water into hydrogen and
oxygen through a new electrodeposition method. The method produces
highly efficient solar cells that can gather solar energy for use as
fuel.

Green storage for green energy

Rechargeable battery to power a home from rooftop solar panels

Date:

September 24, 2015

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150924151401.htm

Harvard
researchers wanted to improve on their 2014 flow battery. Their goal
was to replace the conventional bromine-bearing electrolyte with
something nontoxic. In a paper released today, the team's findings
"deliver the first high-performance, nonflammable, nontoxic,
noncorrosive, and low-cost chemicals for flow batteries." A prototype of
the battery is pictured.

Credit: Eliza Grinnell/Harvard Paulson School

A team of Harvard scientists and
engineers has demonstrated a rechargeable battery that could make
storage of electricity from intermittent energy sources like solar and
wind safe and cost-effective for both residential and commercial use.
The new research builds on earlier work by members of the same team that
could enable cheaper and more reliable electricity storage at the grid
level.

----------------------------

Watch A Spray-On Solar Cell Getting Made

December 9, 2014

http://www.popsci.com/watch-spray-solar-cell-getting-made

------------

Solar cells that can face almost any direction and keep themselves clean

December 16, 2015

In recent years, a complicated discussion over which direction
solar cells should face—south or west—has likely left customers
uncertain about the best way to orient their panels. Now researchers are
attempting to resolve this issue by developing solar cells that can
harvest light from almost any angle, and the panels self-clean to boot.
Their report appears in the journal ACS Nano.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-solar-cells.html

----------------

This Solar-Powered Engine Can Be Made With A 3D Printer

April, 2015

http://www.popsci.com/solar-powered-engine-can-be-made-3d-printer

--------------------------

DIY 3D Solar Panel Powers Electric Motor From 2 LED Flashlights

The
Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada is set to come online in
March. Once completed, it will use thousands of mirrors to focus
sunlight on a tower, melting millions of pounds of salt contained
inside. The molten salt will heat water into steam, which then turns
turbines and generates electricity without any carbon byproducts.
There’s just one little problem: During a test run on January 14, the
intense heat from the mirrors reportedly incinerated and/or vaporized
more than 100 birds.

Rewire
reports that during the test, operators fired up a third of the
110-megawatt facility’s mirrors, concentrating sunlight on a spot 1,200
feet off the ground. Over a six-hour period, biologists counted 130
"streamers," or trails of smoke and water left behind as birds ignited
and plummeted to their deaths. Rewire’s anonymous source said that at
least one of the birds "turned white hot and vaporized completely."

http://www.popsci.com/solar-power-towers-are-vaporizing-birds

------------

Some
people are concerned with the use of genetically modified algae, that
could be used in the harvesting of energy. This would also have to deal
with the types of chemicals, that this type of algae could put into the
atmosphere and natural waterways.

-------

Marine Algae Found to Harness Power of Quantum Mechanics

February 3, 2010

Scientists still struggle to understand and harness the spooky
physics of quantum mechanics, but nature may have a head start on us
humans. Tiny marine algae apparently use the mysterious phenomenon called superposition
-- where a particle can be in two places at the same time -- to move
around solar energy they harvest through the process of photosynthesis.
This
astounding find suggests that biological creatures may have adapted
quantum mechanics for survival billions of years ago. It also
demonstrates that quantum mechanics can prevail over classical physics
even at normal temperatures, given that the algae can send energy
flowing through several alternate biological paths simultaneously.

Algae could both provide biofuel and clean up wastewater

April 6, 2015

Algae may indeed be a potential source of biofuel,
but it can also find use in things like nutritional supplements and
cosmetics. When it's grown commercially, its growth is usually aided
with chemical fertilizers. The cost of those chemicals cuts into the
profits, however, plus the fertilizers are also needed for more
traditional crops. That's why scientists from Houston's Rice University
are looking into growing algae in municipal wastewater – the water would
already contain its own free fertilizer, plus the algae would help
clean it up.

Energy transfer between carotenoids and bacteriochlorophylls in light-harvestingcomplex II of purple bacteria

In
photosynthetic light-harvesting systems carotenoids and chlorophylls
jointly absorb light and transform its energy within about a
picosecond into electronic singlet excitations of the
chlorophylls only. This paper investigates this process for the
light-harvesting complex II of the purple bacterium Rhodospirillum
molis-chianum, for which a structure and, hence, the exact arrangement
of the participating bacteriochlorophylls and carotenoids have recently
become known. Based on this structure and on CI expansions of the
electronic states of individual chromophores~bacteriochlorophylls and
carotenoids as well as on an exciton description of a circular aggregate
of bacteriochlorophylls, the excitation transfer between carotenoids
and bacteriochlorophylls is described by means of Fermi’s golden rule...

http://www-s.ks.uiuc.edu/Publications/Papers/PDF/DAMJ99/DAMJ99.pdf

---------------------

We
question the uses of genetically modified bacteria, for use in energy
harvesting. This includes BPV types of technologies, which is able tap
into the power of the use of photosynthesis of living organisms and
plants. Many inventors want to use biotechnology, in order to create
energy from living organisms. Many people think that this could solve
the energy crisis, while others question how ethical many of these
experiments are. This includes how far certain scientists are willing to
go, to experiment with genetically modified organisms, as a source of
energy.

----------------

"Living furniture" could power laptops and desk lamps

May 3, 2012

The BPV technology is able to generate electricity by tapping into the
photosynthesis of living organisms such as cyanobacteria, moss, algae
and vascular plants. As the name suggests, the Moss Table incorporates
an array of BPV devices which generate electricity from a cluster of
moss plants. While the present amount of energy generated by the table
is not enough to power the featured table-lamp, it is the envisioned
goal of the project. However, the research group was able to illustrate
how the same BPV technology is able to power small devices like a
digital clock, by applying some of the units that operate inside the
Moss Table.

------------------New method for converting solar energy into electrical power using photo-bioelectrochemical cells

January 19, 2016

A
new paradigm for the development of photo-bioelectrochemical cells has
been reported in the journal Nature Energy by researchers from The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Israel, and the University of Bochum,
in Germany.

The design of photo-bioelectrochemical
cells based on native photosynthetic reaction is attracting substantial
recent interest as a means for the conversion of solar light energy into
electrical power.

In the natural photosynthetic
apparatus, photosynthetic reaction is coupled to biocatalytic
transformations leading to CO2 fixation and O2 evolution. Although
significant progress has been achieved in the integration of native
photosystems with electrodes for light-to-electrical energy conversion,
the conjugation of the photosystems to enzymes to yield
photo-bioelectrocatalytic solar cells remains a challenge.

Now,
researchers report on the construction of photo-bioelectrochemical
cells using the native photosynthetic reaction and the enzymes glucose
oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase. The system consists of modified
integrated electrodes that include the natural photosynthetic reaction
center, known as photosystem I, conjugated to the enzymes glucose
oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase. The native proteins are electrically
wired by means of chemical electron transfer mediators. Photoirradiation
of the electrodes leads to the generation of electrical power, while
oxidizing the glucose substrate acting as a fuel.

The
system provides a model to harness the native photosynthetic apparatus
for the conversion of solar light energy into electrical power, using
biomass substrates as fuels. In contrast to numerous bioelectrochemical
systems using electrical power to oxidize glucose, the present study
introduces the implementation of the native photosystem to produce
electrical power using light as the energy source.

Brave North Carolina town fights back against sun-sucking solar panels

December 14, 2015

Congratulations to the town of Woodland, North Carolina! They are
turning back the tide of insidious solar. They have voted for a complete
moratorium on solar farms, after hearing from a retired science
teacher, Jane Mann. According to the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald:

She
is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that
photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would
keep the plants from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar
panels where the plants are brown and dead because they did not get
enough sunlight. She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in
the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause
cancer.

Magnetic Effect of Light Could Lead to New Solar Panels Technology

Sun-Powered Whirlwinds Spin The Solar Vortex, Results Cheaper Energy

March 7, 2013

Whirlwinds are being used to create electricity in Atlanta,
at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Mark Simpson and Ari Glezer have
built a device that harnesses the temperature difference between a hot
metal sheet on the ground and the cooler air a meter above.

Producing electrical power with cardboard, tape, and a pencil

January 26, 2016

A small device
made from everyday materials can generate enough energy to power several
diodes. This clever discovery by an EPFL postdoctoral student was
presented yesterday at a global conference on micro- and nano- systems
in Shanghai.

New efficiency record for solar hydrogen production is 14 percent

September 15, 2015

An
international team has succeeded in considerably increasing the
efficiency for direct solar water splitting with a tandem solar cell
whose surfaces have been selectively modified. The new record value is
14 percent and thus tops the previous record of 12.4 percent, broken now
for the first time in 17 years. Researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum
Berlin, TU Ilmenau, Fraunhofer ISE and California Institute of
Technology participated in the collaboration. The results are published
in Nature Communications.

Solar energy is abundantly
available globally, but unfortunately not constantly and not everywhere.
One especially interesting solution for storing this energy is
artificial photosynthesis. This is what every leaf can do, namely
converting sunlight to chemical energy. That can take place with
artificial systems based on semiconductors as well. These use the
electrical power that sunlight creates in individual semiconductor
components to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen possesses
very high energy density, can be employed in many ways and could replace
fossil fuels. In addition, no carbon dioxide harmful to the climate is
released from hydrogen during combustion, instead only water. Until now,
manufacturing of solar hydrogen at the industrial level has failed due
to the costs, however. This is because the efficiency of artificial
photosynthesis, i.e. the energy content of the hydrogen compared to that
of sunlight, has simply been too low to produce hydrogen from the sun.

-----------

Study advances hydrogen production efforts

December 22, 2015

NREL's scientists took a different approach to the
PEC process, which uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and
oxygen. The process requires special semiconductors, the PEC materials
and catalysts to split the water. Previous work used precious metals
such as platinum, ruthenium and iridium as catalysts attached to the
semiconductors. A large-scale commercial effort using those precious
metals wouldn't be cost-effective, however.

The use of
cheaper molecular catalysts instead of precious metals has been
proposed, but these have encountered issues with stability, and were
found to have a lifespan shorter than the metal-based catalysts.

Instead,
the NREL researchers decided to examine molecular catalysts outside of
the liquid solution they are normally studied in to see if they could
attach the catalyst directly onto the surface of the semiconductor. They
were able to put a layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) on the surface of
the semiconductor and bond the molecular catalyst to the TiO2.

Their work showed molecular catalysts can be as highly active as the precious metal-based catalysts.

Their
research, "Water Reduction by a p-GaInP2 Photoelectrode Stabilized by
an Amorphous TiO2 Coating and a Molecular Cobalt Catalyst," has been
published in Nature Materials. Jing Gu and Yong Yan are lead authors of
the paper. Contributors James Young, Nathan Neale and John Turner are
all with NREL's Chemistry and Nanoscience Center. Contributor K. Xerxes
Steirer is with NREL's Materials Science Center.

Solar-powered hydrogen generation using two of the most abundant elements on Earth

June 23, 2015

One potential clean energy future requires an economical, efficient, and relatively
simple way to generate copious amounts of hydrogen for use in fuel-cells and hydrogen-powered
vehicles. Often achieved by using electricity
to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, the ideal method
would be to mine hydrogen from water using electricity generated
directly from sunlight without the addition of any external power
source.
Hematite – the mineral form of iron – used in conjunction with silicon
has shown some promise in this area,
but low conversion efficiencies have slowed research. Now scientists
have
discovered a way to make great improvements, giving hope to using two
of the most abundant elements on earth to efficiently produce hydrogen.

Record efficiency for converting solar energy to hydrogen without rare metals

December 8, 2014

Using solar energy to split water into its component parts, thereby
allowing the solar energy to be stored as hydrogen fuel, generally
involves one of two methods: using photoelectrochemical cells to
directly split the water, or using solar cells to produce electricity to
power an electrolyzer that separates the water molecules. One problem
associated with the latter method is that it currently relies on rare
metals. But now scientists from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL) in Switzerland have managed to do so using common materials, and
have achieved a record solar energy to hydrogen conversion efficiency
in the process.

Scientists create water splitter that runs on a single AAA battery

August 25, 2014

A new emissions-free device created by scientists at Stanford University
uses an ordinary 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen and
oxygen at room temperature, potentially providing a low-cost method to
power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles and buildings.

SafeFlame torch turns water into fire

The pressurized acetylene and propane gas used in brazing and related
tasks is highly flammable, and thus very dangerous. You know what isn't
flammable, though? Water. Bearing that in mind, the European
Union-funded SafeFlame consortium has developed a torch system that
generates a flame using nothing but H2O and electricity.
SafeFlame utilizes an electrical current to
electrolyze ordinary water, separating it into hydrogen and oxygen gas.
Those gases are then mixed and ignited as they exit the torch's nozzle.
By fine-tuning the proportions of the two gases, different types of
flames can be produced for different applications.
Additionally, the length and heat of the flame can be adjusted by varying the amount of power delivered to the electrolyzer.

-------------

Inexpensive catalyst for producing hydrogen under real-world conditions found

January 11, 2013

Hydrogen has been hailed as the fuel of the future, but producing it
cleanly using platinum as a catalyst is simply too costly to service the
world's energy needs. On the flipside, producing hydrogen with fossil
fuels not only releases CO2 as a byproduct, but is unsustainable,
negating hydrogen's green potential. However, hydrogen may yet make good
on its promise thanks to a group of scientists at the University of
Cambridge.

Can hydrogen bring the next great improvement to lithium batteries?

November 8, 2015

New research from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has found
that hydrogen can greatly improve both the capacity and conductivity of
lithium-ion batteries. The research could also pave the way for better
storage mediums for several energy options, including hydrogen itself.

New solar panels are cheaper, more environmentally sustainable

Scientists from Northwestern University have created a new type of
solar panel that is less expensive to produce, better for the
environment, and could eventually be more efficient at capturing the
suns rays and turning them into energy.
Perovskite solar panels, solar cells with a crystal structure similar
to that of calcium titanium oxide, have been around since 2008– but
only in laboratories. A key component of perovskite cells (until now) is
lead, which is used to absorb light into the solar cell.A downside of using lead is its
toxicity, which can poison the environment, and waterways if introduced
to nature. Humans and animals exposed to large amounts of lead can
contract lead poisoning.

----------------

New technique could produce the ideal light-absorbing material for solar cells

Solar cell efficiency has made significant strides
in recent times, but cells are still far from their maximum theoretical
efficiency, and part of the reason is that the semiconductors we use to
build them don’t have ideal electrical properties. Researchers at
Northwestern University have now found a way to tweak an important
electrical feature of transition metal oxides, compounds commonly used
as semiconductors, to build the optimal light-absorbing material for
solar cells, lasers and photoelectrochemical cells.
In electronics, the band gap
is a crucial feature of a semiconductor, measuring the amount of energy
that an electron needs to be fed before it can start conducting
electricity. Its size is measured in electronvolts (eV) and dictates
whether a material will behave as a conductor (~0 eV), a semiconductor
(~1–9 eV) or an insulator (~9 or more eV).
Being able to tweak the band gap at will would be
incredibly useful. Solar cells, for instance, produce electricity
whenever a photon travels to a silicon atom and "hits" it, giving one of
silicon’s electrons enough energy to jump the band gap and become
conductive. Tuning the band gap would mean being able to design the
ideal semiconductor that can maximize the amount of energy harvested
throughout the visible spectrum. However, current methods
can only change the band gap by about one eV and can only do so by
modifying the material’s chemical composition, which is not ideal.

-------------

Can This Mineral Power The Planet?

August 25, 2014

In only five years, the sunlight-to-energy efficiency of solar cells
made from lab-grown perovskites has almost quintupled, from 3.8 to
nearly 20 percent. Compare that to sluggish gains made with silicon
technology, which took three decades to reach the same threshold. Today,
commercial silicon panels top out at 18 percent. Perovskite cells may
best that rate, and have the added advantage of being cheap and easy to
manufacture. They could reduce the cost-per-watt of solar by more than
half. Plus, some prototype cells are partially translucent, so
researchers like Oxford University’s Henry Snaith see potential
applications as windowpanes. But for all of perovskites’s promise,
scientists still need to address three big challenges.

Two optoelectronic materials getting a
lot of press these days are perovskite and quantum dots.
Both have been individually
utilized by researchers to boost sunlight conversion to electrical
current in
solar cells, and to increase the efficacy of electrically-generated
light. Now
engineers at the University of Toronto (U of T) have combined both of
these
materials to create an ultra-efficient, super-luminescent hybrid crystal
that they say will enable new records in power-to-light conversion
efficiencies.

-----------------

Graphene-based solar cell hits record 15.6 percent efficiency

January 14, 2014

In 2012, researchers from the University of Florida reported a record efficiency of 8.6 percent
for a prototype solar cell consisting of a wafer of silicon coated with
a layer of graphene doped with trifluoromethanesulfonyl-amide (TFSA).
Now another team is claiming a new record efficiency of 15.6 percent for
a graphene-based solar cell by ditching the silicon all together.

Simplifying solar cells with a new mix of materials

January 27, 2016

The new study,
though, demonstrated a dopant-free silicon cell, referred to as a DASH
cell (dopant free asymmetric heterocontact), with an average efficiency
above 19 percent. This increased efficiency is a product of the new
materials and a simple coating process for layers on the top and bottom
of the device. Researchers showed it's possible to create their solar
cell in just seven steps.

In this study, the research
team used a crystalline silicon core (or wafer) and applied layers of
dopant-free type of silicon called amorphous silicon.

Then,
they applied ultrathin coatings of a material called molybdenum oxide,
also known as moly oxide, at the sun-facing side of the solar cell, and
lithium fluoride at the bottom surface. The two layers, having
thicknesses of tens of nanometers, act as dopant-free contacts for holes
and electrons, respectively.

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-solar-cells-materials.html

---------------------

Who Killed the WATER Car?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CAzlW14k-w

----------------------

Miniature car runs only on the power of evaporating water

June 17, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/tiny-car-evaporating-water/38061/

--------------

Hydroelectric Generator: How to Build a Small One

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/hydroelectric-generator/#.VSFkS-G-2zk

----------------

HydroBee wants to be your personal hydroelectric generator

November 19, 2013

There are already plenty of gadgets that allow people to charge their
mobile devices while off the grid. Most of those products utilize solar
power, while a few have gone the thermoelectric
route. The HydroBee, however, generates electricity using the power of
flowing water – think of it as a portable hydroelectric station.

World's First NUCLEAR SALT REACTOR - Documentary Films

Jan 25, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIDytUCRtTA

--------------

"Water-in-salt" battery bodes well for greener, safer grid storage

December 6, 2015

Scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Army Research
Laboratory have used high concentrations of salt in water to create
safe, green batteries that could find use in anything from large-scale
grid storage to spaceships and pacemakers.

February 26, 2016

Splitting water is a
two-step process, and in a new study, researchers have performed one of
these steps (reduction) with 100% efficiency. The results shatter the
previous record of 60% for hydrogen production with visible light, and
emphasize that future research should focus on the other step
(oxidation) in order to realize practical overall water splitting. The
main application of splitting water into its components of oxygen and
hydrogen is that the hydrogen can then be used to deliver energy to fuel
cells for powering vehicles and electronic devices.

We
often hear about electronic waste that has many toxic chemicals.
Electronic waste even has to be disposed of, in a different way, than
average waste. One of our goals, is to make electronics biodegrade, and
close to being as non-toxic to the environment, as possible.

--------------

Self-Powered Solar Circuit Could Help Computing Become Greener and Faster

How New Self-Healing Circuit Restores Electricity in 20 Seconds

Maze-solving automatons can repair broken circuits (w/ video)

Apr 07, 2015

(Phys.org)—Modern electronic circuits may provide unprecedented
flexibility and robustness, but even the best-made circuits are subject
to open circuit faults—breaks caused by thermal, mechanical and
electrical stress. In a new study, scientists have developed an
intelligent self-healing mechanism that can locate open circuit
faults—even when not in the line of sight—and then repair them by
building bridges of tiny conductive particles to close the gap. The
real-time repair mechanism could be especially useful for space
technology, allowing open faults on satellites to be repaired without
the need for expensive operations.

-------------------------

Electrical circuit made of gel can repair itself

August 25, 2015

Scientists have fabricated a flexible electrical circuit that, when cut
into two pieces, can repair itself and fully restore its original
conductivity. The circuit is made of a new gel that possesses a
combination of properties that are not typically seen together: high
conductivity, flexibility, and room-temperature self-healing. The gel
could potentially offer self-healing for a variety of applications,
including flexible electronics, soft robotics, artificial skins,
biomimetic prostheses, and energy storage devices.

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-electrical-circuit-gel.html#jCp

---------------------

Liquid metal could be used to create morphing electronics

September 21, 2014

http://www.gizmag.com/liquid-metal-morphing-electronics/33836/

Who could forget the scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day
where the shape-shifting T-1000 reassembles itself from thousands of
blobs of molten metal? Researchers from North Carolina State University
(NCSU) have taken the first steps to such science fiction becoming
reality by developing a way to control the surface tension of liquid
metals with the application of very low voltages. This may offer
opportunities in a new field of morphing electronic circuits, self-healing electronics, or – one day – maybe even self-assembling terminator-style robots.

The liquid metal used by the researchers was an alloy
of gallium and indium. Gallium is liquid just above room temperature at
about 29° C (84° F), while Indium has a much higher melting point at
around 156° C (312° F), yet when mixed together, they form an alloy that
is liquid at room temperature. In other words, a eutectic
alloy – one that is composed of metals with disparate melting points
that, when combined, melt as a whole at a specific temperature.

Another important aspect of this eutectic alloy, and
one that the researchers sought to exploit in their experiments, is its
exceptionally high surface tension of approximately 500 millinewtons per
meter (mN/m). The consequence of this is that a blob of this alloy
resting on a surface will tend to form an almost spherical ball and hold
its shape if undisturbed...

----------------------

Silicon-based metamaterials could bring photonic circuits

January 29, 2016

New transparent metamaterials under development could make possible
computer chips and interconnecting circuits that use light instead of
electrons to process and transmit data, representing a potential leap in
performance.

------------------

Apr 03, 2015

(Phys.org)—Self-assembled monolayers are organic
molecules that spontaneously coordinate to a metal surface. If this
metal surface is an electrode, then a current can pass through the
organic monolayer and interact with a second electrode on the terminal
side of the molecule. This current can be controlled by changing the
characteristics of the organic molecule, such as making it longer or
adding polar substituents or other functional groups. This tailoring of
organic circuits is part of a bigger project of creating organic-based
electronics.

IBM to demonstrate first on-package silicon photonics

March 13, 2015

One of the most tantalizing
next-generation technologies that could dramatically reduce system power
consumption and improve bandwidth is silicon photonics. This method of
chip-to-chip communication uses silicon as an optical medium, and
transmits data incredibly quickly with far better power consumption and
thermals than traditional copper wires. Now, IBM is claiming to have
advanced the technology a significant step by integrating a silicon
photonic chip on the same package as a CPU.

June 8th, 2015

A team of IBM researchers in Zurich, Switzerland with support from
colleagues in Yorktown Heights, New York has developed a relatively
simple, robust and versatile process for growing crystals made from
compound semiconductor materials that will allow them be integrated onto
silicon wafers—an important step toward making future computer chips
that will allow integrated circuits to continue shrinking in size and
cost even as they increase in performance.

In what is likely a major breakthrough for quantum computing,
researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia
have managed for the first time to build the fundamental blocks of a
quantum computer in silicon. The device was created using standard
manufacturing techniques, by modifying current-generation silicon
transistors, and the technology could scale up to include thousands,
even millions of entangled quantum bits on a single chip. Gizmag spoke
to the lead researchers to find out more.

High-temperature superconductivity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconductivity

----------------

Two spin liquids square off in an iron-based superconductor

August 5, 2015

Despite a quarter-century of research since the discovery of
the first high-temperature superconductors, scientists still don't have a
clear picture of how these materials are able to conduct electricity
with no energy loss. Studies to date have focused on finding long-range
electronic and magnetic order in the materials, such as patterns of
electron spins, based on the belief that this order underlies
superconductivity. But a new study published online the week of August
3, 2015, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is
challenging this notion.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-liquids-square-iron-based-superconductor.html#jCp

---------------

Superconducting secrets solved after 30 years

15 Jun 2014

See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/superconducting-secrets-solved-after-30-years#sthash.urBkHuLs.dpuf

Researchers
from the University of Cambridge have found that ripples of electrons,
known as charge density waves or charge order, create twisted ‘pockets’
of electrons in these materials, from which superconductivity emerges.
The results are published in the June 15th issue of the journal Nature.

Low-temperature,
or conventional, superconductors were first identified in the early
20th century, but they need to be cooled close to absolute zero (zero
degrees on the Kelvin scale, or -273 degrees Celsius) before they start
to display superconductivity. So-called high-temperature superconductors
however, can display the same properties at temperatures up to 138
Kelvin (-135 degrees Celsius), making them much more suitable for
practical applications.

Since they were first
identified in the mid-1980s, the process of discovering new
high-temperature superconductors could be best described as random.
While researchers have identified the ingredients that make for a good
low-temperature superconductor, high-temperature superconductors have
been more reluctant to give up their secrets.

In a
superconductor, as in any electronic device, current is carried via the
charge on an electron. What is different about superconductors is that
the electrons travel in tightly bound pairs. When traveling on their
own, electrons tend to bump into each other, resulting in a loss of
energy. But when paired up, the electrons move smoothly through a
superconductor’s structure, which is why superconductors can carry
current with no resistance. As long as the temperature is kept
sufficiently low, the electron pairs will keep moving through the
superconductor indefinitely.

Key to conventional
superconductors are the interactions of electrons with the lattice
structure of the material. These interactions generate a type of ‘glue’
which holds the electrons together. The strength of the glue is directly
related to the strength of the superconductor, and when the
superconductor is exposed to an increase in temperature or magnetic
field strength, the glue is weakened, the electron pairs break apart and
superconductivity is lost. -

- Working
with extremely strong magnetic fields, the researchers were able to kill
the superconducting effect in cuprates - thin sheets of copper and
oxygen separated by more complex types of atoms.

Previous
attempts to determine the origins of superconductivity by determining
the normal state have used temperature instead of magnetic field to
break the electron pairs apart, which has led to inconclusive results.

As
cuprates are such good superconductors, it took the strongest magnetic
fields in the world – 100 Tesla, or roughly one million times stronger
than the Earth’s magnetic field – in order to suppress their
superconducting properties.

These experiments were
finally able to solve the mystery surrounding the origin of pockets of
electrons in the normal state that pair to create superconductivity. It
was previously widely held that electron pockets were located in the
region of strongest superconductivity. Instead, the present experiments
using strong magnetic fields revealed a peculiar undulating twisted
pocket geometry -similar to Jenga bricks where each layer goes in a
different direction to the one above or beneath it.

These
results pinpointed the pocket locations to be where superconductivity
is weakest, and their origin to be ripples of electrons known as charge
density waves, or charge order. It is this normal state that is
overridden to yield superconductivity in the family of cuprate
superconductors studied.

---------

Physicists discover new properties of superconductivity

February 4, 2016

New findings from an international collaboration led by
Canadian scientists may eventually lead to a theory of how
superconductivity initiates at the atomic level, a key step in
understanding how to harness the potential of materials that could
provide lossless energy storage, levitating trains and ultra-fast
supercomputers.
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-physicists-properties-superconductivity.html

----------

New invention revolutionizes heat transport

February 1, 2016

Scientists at Aalto University, Finland, have made a
breakthrough in physics. They succeeded in transporting heat maximally
effectively ten thousand times further than ever before. The discovery
may lead to a giant leap in the development of quantum computers.
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-revolutionizes.html

----------

Heavy fermions get nuclear boost on way to superconductivity

January 28, 2016

In
a surprising find, physicists from the United States, Germany and China
have discovered that nuclear effects help bring about superconductivity
in ytterbium dirhodium disilicide (YRS), one of the most-studied
materials in a class of quantum critical compounds known as "heavy
fermions."

The discovery, which is described in this
week's issue of Science, marks the first time that superconductivity has
been observed in YRS, a composite material that physicists have studied
for more than a decade in an effort to probe the quantum effects
believed to underlie high-temperature superconductivity.

Rice
University physicist and study co-author Qimiao Si said the research
provides further evidence that unconventional superconductivity arises
from "quantum criticality."

Quantum Faraday and Kerr rotations in graphene

Published 14 May 2013

Graphene, a monolayer sheet of carbon atoms, exhibits intriguing
electronic properties that arise from its massless Dirac dispersion of
electrons. A striking example is the half-integer quantum Hall effect,
which endorses the presence of Dirac cones or, equivalently, a non-zero
(π) Berry’s (topological) phase. It is curious how these anomalous
features of Dirac electrons would affect optical properties. Here we
observe the quantum magneto-optical Faraday and Kerr effects in graphene
in the terahertz frequency range. Our results detect the quantum
plateaus in the Faraday and Kerr rotations at precisely the quantum Hall
steps that hallmark the Dirac electrons, with the rotation angle
defined by the fine-structure constant. The robust quantum Hall plateaus
in the optical regime, besides being conceptually interesting, may open
avenues for new graphene-based optoelectronic applications.

Some
people are concerned that mass-produced tidal energy harvesting
technology, could be a concern for the environment. We must take into
consideration, how the currents of the ocean water, even including the
currents of the wind, that could be redirected by this technology.

----------------
----------------

Chapter 14: Wind energy

----------------
----------------

---------------------

------------------

Some
people question, if it would be sustainable, or a possible hazard,
to able to harness energy from ions near the surface of the ocean. This includes different wind currents, around the globe, as being used as a source of energy. That is why many, question if wind energy, is really the best source of energy, for the planet.

-------------

Ocean waves may hold secret to efficient renewable energy

September 8, 2015

UC's
Thomas Beck explains that every time a wave breaks, droplets of water
containing ions go up in the air, but how those ions arrange near the
surface of the droplets can affect the chemistry of what happens in the
atmosphere around them.

As the demand for renewable wind and solar energy steadily increases,
the need to reduce the cost and extend the life of renewable energy
storage batteries becomes even greater.

By getting back to the basics, a University of Cincinnati quantum chemistry researcher looks at how water
and other molecules align and influence ionic distribution on the
surface where air and the liquid meet. These findings have received
respect from top physicists around the globe and show promise for
enhancing the efficiency of renewable energy devices.

Oceanic Temperature Difference to Power 120 Hawaiian Homes in 2015

August 31, 2015

A small power plant that can convert the temperature difference between
deep ocean and surface ocean waters into electricity was unveiled in
Hawaii last week, the first of its kind to be connected to the grid.

Evaporation as New Source of Renewable Energy

June 29, 2015

Evaporation is now becoming a source of renewable
energy with the help of bacteria and the two new devices, Evaporation
engine, and Moisture mill, invented by the Columbia University
scientists.
While solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal,
bio-energies are widely known, there are also other sources which are,
now, less reliable as both research and technology in those fields are
still in their initial stages. Evaporation is one such source and
scientists are saying that it could become the world’s largest renewable
energy source.
Though it is theoretically a known fact that
during every energy transformation, it is possible to capture and store
energy, in practical, with our today’s technology, we succeeded with
only a few sources. Now, evaporation has also lost the game.

Engineers study the benefits of adding a second, smaller rotor to wind turbines

Mar 10, 2015

Invelox wind turbine claims 600% advantage in energy output

May 10, 2013

SheerWind, a wind power company from Minnesota, USA, has announced
the results of tests it has carried out with its new Invelox wind power
generation technology. The company says that during tests its turbine
could generate six times more energy than the amount produced by
traditional turbines mounted on towers. Besides, the costs of producing
wind energy with Invelox are lower, delivering electricity with prices
that can compete with natural gas and hydropower.

Invelox takes a novel approach to wind power
generation as it doesn’t rely on high wind speeds. Instead, it captures
wind at any speed, even a breeze, from a portal located above ground.
The wind captured is then funneled through a duct where it will pick up
speed. The resulting kinetic energy will drive the generator on the
ground level. By bringing the airflow from the top of the tower, it’s
possible to generate more power with smaller turbine blades, SheerWind
says.

As to the sixfold output claim, as with many new
technologies promising a performance breakthrough, it needs to be viewed
with caution. SheerWind makes the claim based on its own comparative
tests, the precise methodology of which is not entirely clear.

Solar Wind Energy's Downdraft Tower generates its own wind all year round

June 18, 2014

When we think of wind power, we generally think of huge wind turbines
sitting high atop towers where they can take advantage of the higher
wind speeds. But Maryland-based Solar Wind Energy, Inc. is looking to
turn wind power on its head with the Solar Wind Downdraft Tower, which
places turbines at the base of a tower and generates its own wind to
turn them.

Atmospheric Vortex Engine creates tornadoes to generate electricity

December 20, 2012

Tornadoes generally evoke the destructive force of nature at its most
awesome. However, what if all that power could be harnessed to produce
cheaper and more efficient electricity? This is just what Canadian
engineer Louis Michaud proposes to achieve, with an invention dubbed the
“Atmospheric Vortex Engine” (or AVE).

AVE works by introducing warm air into a circular station, whereupon the
difference in temperature between this heated air and the atmosphere
above creates a vortex – or controlled tornado, which in turn drives
multiple wind turbines in order to create electricity. The vortex could
be shut down by simply turning off the source of warm air.

Smart wind turbines can predict the wind

Date:

January 5, 2010

Researchers in Denmark
have recently completed the world's first successful test on a wind
turbine with a laser-based anemometer built into the spinner in order to
increase electricity generation. The results show that this system can
predict wind direction, gusts of wind and turbulence.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104092454.htm

--------

DualWingGenerator mimics flapping wings to harvest energy

April 2, 2014

Back in 2011, Festo created a natural-flight mimicking bionic seagull with flapping wings dubbed SmartBird.
The company is now looking to apply similar principles in order to
convert wind power into electricity with its DualWingGenerator system.

Probing the limits of wind power generation

September 2, 2015

Wind turbines
remove kinetic energy from the atmospheric flow, which reduces wind
speeds and limits generation rates of large wind farms. These
interactions can be approximated using a vertical kinetic energy (VKE)
flux method, which predicts that the maximum power generation potential
is 26% of the instantaneous downward transport of kinetic energy using
the preturbine climatology. We compare the energy flux method to the
Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional atmospheric model
equipped with a wind turbine parameterization over a 105 km2 region in
the central United States. The WRF simulations yield a maximum
generation of 1.1 We⋅m−2, whereas the VKE method predicts the time
series while underestimating the maximum generation rate by about 50%.
Because VKE derives the generation limit from the preturbine
climatology, potential changes in the vertical kinetic energy flux from
the free atmosphere are not considered. Such changes are important at
night when WRF estimates are about twice the VKE value because wind
turbines interact with the decoupled nocturnal low-level jet in this
region. Daytime estimates agree better to 20% because the wind turbines
induce comparatively small changes to the downward kinetic energy flux.
This combination of downward transport limits and wind speed reductions
explains why large-scale wind power generation in windy regions is
limited to about 1 We⋅m−2, with VKE capturing this combination in a
comparatively simple way.

Will Newer Wind Turbines Mean Fewer Bird Deaths?

Recognizing health concerns in wind energy development a key recommendation in new study

January 26, 2016

As wind energy
development blossoms in Canada and around the world, opposition at the
community level is challenging the viability of the industry. A new
study with research from the University of Waterloo, published in Nature Energy, identifies four major factors leading to disputes over wind farms, and offers recommendations on avoiding disagreements.

As
wind energy development blossoms in Canada and around the world,
opposition at the community level is challenging the viability of the
industry. A new study with research from the University of Waterloo,
published in Nature Energy, identifies four major factors leading to
disputes over wind farms, and offers recommendations on avoiding
disagreements.

Wind energy may be one of the more sustainable sources of power
available, but the spinning blades of conventional wind turbines require
regular maintenance and have attracted criticism from bird lovers. That
might explain why we've seen wind turbine prototypes that enclose the blades in a chamber or replace them entirely with a disc-like system.
But researchers in the Netherlands set out to eliminate the need for a
mechanical component entirely and created the EWICON, a bladeless wind
turbine with no moving parts that produces electricity using charged
water droplets.

This giant straw is actually a vertical bladeless wind turbine

May 6, 2015

The Vortex wind generator represents a fairly radical break with
conventional wind turbine design, in that it has no spinning blades (or
any moving parts to wear out at all), and looks like nothing more than a
giant straw that oscillates in the wind. It works not by spinning in
the wind, but by taking advantage of a phenomenon called vorticity, or the Kármán vortex street, which is a "repeating pattern of swirling vortices."

Air Force scientists are working on hypersonic air vehicle

Jun 07, 2015

Engineers said the US Air Force is
getting closer to testing a hypersonic weapon. They are developing a
hypersonic weapon based on an experimental scramjet program. What is a
scramjet? NASA said in a "scramjet," or Supersonic Combustion Ramjet,
the oxygen needed by the engine to combust is taken from the atmosphere
passing through the vehicle rather than from an onboard tank.
"Researchers predict scramjet speeds could reach 15 times the speed of
sound. An 18-hour trip to Tokyo from New York City becomes a 2-hour
flight," said NASA.

18 of the coolest, weirdest, and most important electric cars of all time

Who killed The Electric Car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75lqbA0uMM

----

Imagine
the applications of being able to make 3d printed engines and motors.
We even have exoskeletons to make paralyzed people, walk once again.
This technology can even replace many wheelchairs eventually, for many
people.

Paralyzed man uses own brainwaves to walk again – no exoskeleton required

Spinal implant could one day let paralyzed people walk again

January 9, 2015

Three years ago, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) reported success in getting rats with severed spinal cords to walk again.
They did so by suspending the animals in a harness, then using implants
to electrically stimulate neurons in their lower spinal cord. Although
this ultimately resulted in the rats being able to run on their
previously-paralyzed hind legs, the technology still wasn't practical
for long-term use in humans. Thanks to new research conducted at EPFL,
however, that may no longer be the case.

Radical railways: Top 10 transportation systems of the future

July 13, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-elon-musk-high-speed-hyperloop-mars.html

Ever wanted to ride to work in a screaming roller-coaster gun? If your answer was yes: good news!

Elon
Musk – of SpaceX and Tesla Motors fame – recently proposed the
"Hyperloop," a high-speed floating train that's accelerated by magnets
and coasts between destinations. Hailed as the train of the future, the
concept is indeed pretty fancy. Described by Musk himself as "the fifth
mode of transport," it's intended to provide fast and safe transit,
largely self-powered with electricity generated by its own solar panels.

How would Hyperloop work?

The
Hyperloop train concept is based on the idea of a "vactrain." That's a
high-speed train run in a tube that has had all the air removed, making
it a vacuum – hence the name. Having no air in the tube means (almost)
no drag, the aerodynamic force that pushes in the opposite direction
from which a train is traveling. So a vactrain could potentially travel
really fast – think thousands of miles an hour.

Fastest Car in the World: Worlds Top 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCYu_ROyhk

- ----------------------

Bloodhound SSC

Bloodhound SSC is a supersonic land vehicle currently in development. Its goal is to match or exceed 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h) achieving a new world land speed record. The pencil-shaped car, powered by a jet engine and a rocket engine is designed to reach 1,050 miles per hour (1,690 km/h).It is being developed and built with the intention of breaking the land speed record by 33%, the largest ever margin.

The Magnetic Air Car: a Step Towards Free Energy Devices?

Meet the electric motorcycle that's now the fastest production bike in the world

May 20th 2014

The Lightning LS-218 boasts a model number that actually means
something. Back in 2012, a prototype of the electric bike clocked in a
wholly unnecessary (yet much appreciated) 218mph, helping it to win at Pikes Peak
and setting it up to become the world's fastest production motorcycle.
The finished version is now ready to make good on that promise, having
just been revealed at the Quail Motorsport Gathering in California,
prior to a scheduled launch in the summer -- at which point it'll likely
cost upwards of $38,000.

Researchers produce new fuel from coal dust and algae

December 22, 2015

Researchers at
the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in South Africa
have developed a new fuel, known as Coalgae. Made from a combination
of algae and coal dust, the latter of which is a waste product, the
fuel could have a significant positive impact on the environment.

Audi just created diesel fuel from air and water

April 26, 2015

Audi is making a new fuel for internal combustion engines that has the
potential to make a big dent when it comes to climate change – that's
because the synthetic diesel is made from just water and carbon dioxide.

http://www.gizmag.com/audi-creates-e-diesel-from-co2/37130/

------------Genetically modified soybeans produced by Monsanto, is now a giant problem around the world. Many people think that trying to genetically modify a soybean for biofuel may not be the best source of energy. Many think we should have more time to research, these types of experiments, before trying to mass-produce these types of genetically modified chemicals.

---------

Researchers Found An Enzyme That Could Get Gasoline From Thin Air

August 8, 2010

Scientists at the University of California found a
new way to get gasoline from thin air. According to them, an enzyme
(located in the roots of soybeans) that normally produces ammonia from
nitrogen gas, is able to convert carbon monoxide into propane (a common
industrial byproduct used in kitchens across America). This could be the
key to vehicles that run on air.

“This organism is a very common soil bacteria that is very well
understood and has been studied for a long time. But while we were
studying it, we realized that the enzyme has some unusual behavior”,
said Markus Ribbe, a scientist at the University of California.

The
research group has also isolated one particular enzyme to convert
nitrogen into ammonia. Without nitrogen oxygen, the enzyme began to turn
the carbon monoxide (CO) into short chains of carbon two and three
atoms long generating propane. They hope to modify the enzyme so it can
produce gasoline.

Catalyst that converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide in water

Jun 03, 2015

New process produces hydrogen from methane, without emitting CO2

November 30, 2015

Natural gas accounts for over 28 percent of US energy consumption. Its
main component, methane, is a widely-used fossil fuel but also a major
contributor to rising CO2 levels, and thus climate change. To
address this issue, researchers from the Institute of Advanced
Sustainability Studies (IASS) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
(KIT) have developed a process that extracts the energy content of
methane, in the form hydrogen, without producing carbon dioxide...

Carbon dioxide from the air converted into methanol

Scientists develop diesel that emits far less CO2

December 10, 2015

Researchers from KU Leuven and Utrecht University have
discovered a new approach to the production of fuels. Their new method
can be used to produce much cleaner diesel. It can quickly be scaled up
for industrial use. In 5 to 10 years, we may see the first cars driven
by this new clean diesel.
The production of fuel
involves the use of catalysts. These substances trigger the chemical
reactions that convert raw material into fuel. In the case of diesel,
small catalyst granules are added to the raw material to sufficiently
change the molecules of the raw material to produce useable fuel.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-scientists-diesel-emits-co2.html

-------------

New family of chemical structures can effectively remove CO2 from gas mixtures

July 16, 2015

A newly discovered family of chemical structures,
published in Nature today, could increase the value of biogas and
natural gas that contains carbon dioxide.

The
new chemical structures, known as zeolites, have been created by an
international team of researchers including Professor Xiaodong Zou and
co-workers from the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry
at Stockholm University.

The zeolites—crystalline
aluminosilicates with frameworks that contain windows and cavities the
size of small molecules—can separate out carbon dioxide more effectively
from fuel gases than those previously known.

Breakthrough in energy harvesting could power 'life on Mars'

http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/space/newsid=39285.php

(Nanowerk News) Martian colonists could use an innovative new
technique to harvest energy from carbon dioxide thanks to research
pioneered at Northumbria University, Newcastle.

The technique, which has been proven for the first time by researchers
at Northumbria, has been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications ("A sublimation heat engine").

The research proposes a new kind of engine for producing energy based on
the Leidenfrost effect – a phenomenon which happens when a liquid comes
into near contact with a surface much hotter than its boiling point.
This effect is commonly seen in the way water appears to skitter across
the surface of a hot pan, but it also applies to solid carbon dioxide,
commonly known as dry ice. Blocks of dry ice are able to levitate above
hot surfaces protected by a barrier of evaporated gas vapour.
Northumbria’s research proposes using the vapour created by this effect
to power an engine. This is the first time the Leidenfrost effect has
been adapted as a way of harvesting energy.

The
technique has exciting implications for working in extreme and alien
environments, such as outer space, where it could be used to make
long-term exploration and colonisation sustainable by using naturally
occurring solid carbon dioxide as a resource rather than a waste
product. If this could be realised, then future missions to Mars, such
as those in the news recently, may not need to be ‘one-way’ after all.

Dry ice may not be abundant on Earth, but increasing evidence from
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) suggests it may be a naturally
occurring resource on Mars as suggested by the seasonal appearance of
gullies on the surface of the red planet. If utilised in a
Leidenfrost-based engine dry-ice deposits could provide the means to
create future power stations on the surface of Mars.

-------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 18: Biofuel

----------------
----------------

---------------------

We have already seen the problems with genetically modified corn and soy. Many question if genetically modified tobacco plants, have been tested thoroughly. Different groups think that we still need better options for energy, other than biofuel. Many question the excess amount of chemicals, that are being burned in the air, from burning biofuel. Some think that hydrogen energy, magnetic energy or electrical energy, may be cleaner, than certain types of biofuel. We have still not explored all of the possibilities yet, in the sustainable production of different types of biofuel. Biofuel can be made from many different plants, such as coffee grounds, sugarcane, hemp, corn used cooking oil, and many other types of plants. With news laws, such as H.R. 1599, many are concerned that the government now has the authority, to genetically modify any plant, and approve it for human consumption. This includes the approval of genetically modified crops, to be burned for the use of biofuel.

What implications and impacts on the atmosphere, could these types of experiments in genetically modified biofuel, have on the planet?-----------

H.R.1599 - Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the
developer of a bioengineered organism intended as food to submit a
premarket biotechnology notification to the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). A “bioengineered organism” (commonly called a “genetically
modified organism” or “GMO”) is a plant or part of a plant that has been
modified through recombinant DNA techniques in a way that could not be
obtained using conventional breeding techniques.

A
food can be labeled as non-GMO even if it is produced with a GMO
processing aid or enzyme or derived from animals fed GMO feed or given
GMO drugs. The FDA must allow, but not require, GMO food to be labeled as GMO...

Genetically Modified Tobacco Leaves Make Biofuel Efficiently

There
have been many concerns, over the current production of genetically
modified organisms, algae and bacteria to produce energy.

---------

'Nano-raspberries' could bear fruit in fuel cells

Jun 09, 2015

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology have developed a fast, simple process for making platinum
'nano-raspberries'—microscopic clusters of nanoscale particles of the
precious metal. The berry-like shape is significant because it has a
high surface area, which is helpful in the design of catalysts. Even
better news for industrial chemists: the researchers figured out when
and why the berry clusters clump into larger bunches of 'nano-grapes.' The research could help make fuel cells more practical.

December 25, 2015

Imagine a world where vehicles run on beer. Some might think of this as a
devastating waste of good hops, but a University of Maryland (UMD) team
sees a lot of promise for the idea. The team has been awarded a patent
for a process that uses natural microorganisms to ferment biomass or
gases into hydrocarbons. In short, they've figured out how to brew
gasoline naturally...

New technique uses most abundant gas on Earth to help create bioethanol

Zymomonas mobilis bacterium might be tricky to say, but this
bioethanol-producing microbe could become a household name if Indiana
University (IU) biologists have their way. The biologists claim to have
found a quicker, cheaper, cleaner way to increase bioethanol production
in this microorganism by using the most abundant element in the Earth’s
atmosphere: nitrogen gas (N2). By replacing chemical fertilizers with N2,
production costs could be slashed and cellulose ethanol derived from
wood pulp made much more economically viable – so much so that the
researchers believe it may compete with corn ethanol and gasoline on
price.

Cellulose found in woody plants such as trees, grasses, and other inedible plant substances – like olive stones
– is generally low in nitrogen, which makes cellulose all that much
more difficult to convert given that nitrogen is a staple requirement
for feeding ethanol-producing microbes. As a result, cellulosic ethanol
makers spend many millions of dollars a year on nitrogen-rich
fertilizers such as diammonium phosphate or corn-steep liquor.

----------------

New Membrane by Chinese Scientist Can Make Fuel Cells Cheaper

December 17, 2008

Fuel cells are said to be the next big thing in
the auto industry. In fact, they already are the next big thing. Fuel
cells take advantage of the joining force between the oxygen and the
hydrogen, and create electricity, used to drive anything (a car, more
commonly). Price is a prohibitive variable in fuel cells market, and
that’s what’s keeping them from becoming mainstream. Current versions of
fuel cells use platinum as a catalyst for their operation, and, as most
of the people know, platinum is an expensive metal.
Lin
Zhuang, from the Wuhan University in Hubei, China, has studied and
designed a new fuel cell membrane that can make the usage of platinum in
fuel cells history. It is much more cheap and can also become more
efficient than the membranes that require the use of the expensive
metal. His newly developed membrane is alkaline, not acidic, and makes
it possible to use nickel instead of platinum.
The new membrane
can also be mixed with the catalyst itself (nickel), making the whole
assembly more efficient, because the contact surface between them is
increased.

Researchers discover a royal flush in powering fuel cells with wastewater

February 23, 2016

As renewable energy sources goes, solar rays have historically hogged the limelight.
But
two Virginia Tech researchers have stolen the spotlight from the sun by
discovering a way to maximize the amount of electricity that can be
generated from the wastewater we flush down the toilet.

An
article recently published in Scientific Reports detailing their
findings speaks to a growing sustainability movement to capture energy
from existing waste to potentially make treatment facilities more
energy-efficient.

Xueyang Feng and Jason He traced
bacteria, which led them to discover that the working relationship
between two specific substrates produced more energy than either did
separately. This work will help take the mystery out of how
electrochemically-active bacteria create energy. It could help in the
development of new treatment system called a microbial fuel cell.

------------------

Added DNA could be used to authenticate premium olive oil

April 25, 2014

When most people think of counterfeit goods, they probably picture
things like handbags or watches. In fact, there's also a huge market for
knock-off high-end food products, such as extra-virgin olive oil.
Scientists from Switzerland's ETH Zurich research group, however, have
come up with a possible method of thwarting the makers of that bogus oil
– just add synthetic DNA particles to the real thing. And yes,
consumers would proceed to swallow those particles.
Because DNA can be damaged by exposure to chemicals,
light, and fluctuations in temperature when outside of a living
organism, the particles are first encased in a protective silica
coating. Iron oxide nanoparticles are also added, which come into the
picture later.
The DNA particles can then be added to olive oil,
with quite a small amount of them being sufficient for the task at hand –
according to ETH, "Just a few grams of the new substance are enough to
tag the entire olive oil production of Italy."
When stores subsequently wanted to verify the
authenticity of tagged oil, they could use a magnet to retrieve some of
the DNA particles from a sample of the liquid. This is where the
attached iron oxide comes in, as it's drawn to magnets.
The DNA is then freed from its silica shell using a
fluoride-based solution, and analyzed via an inexpensive process known
as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). If the code of the sampled DNA
matched the code that was recorded when the DNA was added by the
manufacturer, then the oil would be the genuine article.
Although it would be extremely difficult for
counterfeiters to create DNA with that same code, they might be tempted
to instead just add a bit of the authentic tagged oil to their own
product, thereby mixing in some of its DNA. That wouldn't work, either,
however, as it's also possible to measure the concentration of DNA particles in a sample – again, that amount would have to match the value that was recorded by the original manufacturer.
The particles reportedly don't alter the appearance
or taste of the oil, and are said to be harmless to ingest. Silica and
iron oxide are essentially sand and rust, and are already present in
some commonly-consumed foods. As for DNA, we eat it every time we eat
plant or animal products. That said, lead scientist Robert Grass thinks
that the technology might go over better with consumers if the synthetic
DNA were replaced with natural DNA, such as that of fruits or
vegetables.
Application of the DNA particles would reportedly
cost about 0.02 cents per liter of oil. The tagging system could also be
used on a wide variety of other liquids, and has already been
successfully tested on Bergamot essential oil, which is used in
perfumes. Scientists at Portugal's University of Aveiro are working on a
similar system, in which DNA "barcodes" can be added to both liquids and dry goods.

22 Jan 2015:

Wood Pellets: Green Energy or New Source of CO2 Emissions?

Are Biofuel Crops Actually Increasing Carbon Emissions?

April 6, 2015
- Graduate student Tyler Lark took a look at what happens when biofuel
crops replace former wetlands or grasslands, and their findings were
quite shocking. The issue arises when you consider that undisturbed
forest, wetlands, and grasslands are already doing a fine job of carbon
sequestration, all on their own.

Replacing those areas to biofuel crops actually results in a net increase in carbon emissions, according to the UW-Madison study.
For example, between 2008 and 2012, the study determined that some
seven million acres, about 11,000 square miles, of former grasslands and
wetlands. About half of that, or an area the size of the state of
Connecticut, was converted land for planting biofuel crops, such as
soybeans and corn.

According to their calculations, the
destruction of these natural carbon sequestering zones could possibly be
responsible for as much carbon dioxide emissions as adding another 28
million cars to the road. In other terms, the UW-Madison study says that
this is about as much carbon emissions as putting another 34 coal power plants in service.

Aside
from other environmental impacts, such as natural habitat destruction,
increased erosion, and increased irrigation, do we need to take another
look at land use with regards to net carbon dioxide emissions related to
biofuel crops?

Burning
a little biofuel, may not that bad. Compared to all of the geothermal
activity going on, in the Earth. The problem is when we burn, or consume
too much of one resource. This includes using or extracting too many
resources, from forests, to grow plants for biofuel. People could also
eat crops grown for food, instead of crops being grown to make biofuel.
A better
alternative would be to create cold fusion energy, or other sources of energy.

-----------------

Metal makes for a promising alternative to fossil fuels

December 12, 2015

Clean fuels come in many forms, but burning iron or aluminum seems to be
stretching the definition – unless you ask a team of scientists led by
McGill University, who see a low-carbon future that runs on metal. The
team is studying the combustion characteristics of metal powders to
determine whether such powders could provide a cleaner, more viable
alternative to fossil fuels than hydrogen, biofuels, or electric
batteries.

New process recycles rare earth elements from wastewater

October 31, 2013

Rare earth elements are an integral part of many of today's
electronic devices, serving as magnets, catalysts and superconductors.
Unfortunately, these minerals are also ... well, rare, and thus
very pricey. Recently, however, scientists discovered that some of them
can be reclaimed from industrial wastewater, instead of being mined
from the earth.
The researchers, from the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, already knew that a nanomaterial known as nano-magnesium
hydroxide (nano-Mg(OH)2) could remove some metals and dyes from
wastewater. It was also known that the rare earth elements in
wastewater tend to be very diluted, and thus quite difficult to remove
in a practical, inexpensive fashion.

Gold and other valuable metals may be harvested from sewage

March 24, 2015

Mining operations tend not be very good for the environment, nor does
the disposal of treated solid waste that still contains
potentially-toxic metals. Now, however, scientists are looking into
taking that waste and harvesting its trace amounts of metals such as
gold, silver and platinum. Doing so could ultimately reduce the need for
mining and decrease the amount of metals entering the environment,
while also turning sewage into a source of revenue.

Rare earths are among the most precious raw
materials of all. These metals are used in mobile telephones, display
screens and computers. And they are apparently indispensable for some
organisms as well. Scientists have discovered a bacterium which needs
rare earths to grow -- in a hot spring.

In an effort to help develop a domestic supply of
rare earth elements, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have
developed a novel method of chemically separating these materials --
specifically neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium -- from the drive
units and motors of discarded electric and hybrid cars. The goal is to
recycle rare earths that would otherwise be lost in a sustainable and
efficient manner.

Mar 25, 2015

-------Some question if there could be a way, to make hydrophobic chemicals, to be able to biodegrade naturally in the wild. This includes if these superhydrophobic chemicals, have been properly tested, with the impact that it would have, in the environment.

-------

Bacteria used to create superfluids

July 13, 2015

A
team of researchers with Université Paris-Sud and Université P.M.
Curie/Université Paris-Diderot, both in France, has discovered that
putting certain types of bacteria into an ordinary fluid, can cause it
to become a superfluid. In their paper published in the journal Physical
Review Letters, the team describes how they modified an old rheometer
to conduct the tests, their readings and their ideas on why the bacteria
caused a change in viscosity.

A fluid's viscosity is its
state of thickness as can be demonstrated when it is poured out—water
will run out much faster than oil, for example. Viscosity comes about
due to friction among the ingredients that make up the fluid. Scientists
have suspected for a number of years that bacteria in a fluid can cause
a change in its viscosity, but until now, it has not been proven. To do
so, the researchers pulled out a rheometer (a device used to measure
viscosity) that was built several decades ago—they modified it to allow
for connecting to a computer.

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-bacteria-superfluids.html

---------

Many tests still need to be done, to see how certain types of synthesized bacteria to create superfluids, will react and biodegrade, in the wild.

Many people also want self lubricating devices, that are non-toxic. Such as the properties of the wood called lignum vitae.

- "Lignum vitae" is Latin
for "wood of life", and derives its name from its medicinal uses;
lignum vitae resin has been used to treat a variety of medical
conditions from coughs to arthritis, and chips of the wood can also be used to brew a tea.

Master clockmaker John Harrison used lignum vitae in the bearings and gears of his pendulum clocks and his first three marine chronometers
(all of which were large clocks rather than watches), since the wood is
self-lubricating. The use of lignum vitae eliminates the need for
horological lubricating oil;
18th-century horological oil would get gummy and reduce the accuracy of
a timepiece under unfavourable conditions (including those that prevail
at sea).
For the same reason it was widely used in water-lubricated shaft bearings for ships and hydro-electric power plants, and in the stern-tube bearings of ship propellers until the 1960s saw the introduction of sealed white metalbearings. According to the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association website, the shaft bearings on the WWII submarine USS Pampanito (SS-383) were made of this wood. The aft main shaft strut bearings for USS Nautilus (SSN-571),
the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, were composed of this
wood. Also, the bearings in the original 1920s turbines of the Conowingo hydroelectric plant on the lower Susquehanna River
were made from lignum vitae. The shaft bearings on the horizontal
turbines at the Pointe du Bois generating station in Manitoba are made
from lignum vitae. Other hydroelectric plant turbine bearings, many of
them still in service, were fabricated with lignum vitae and are too
numerous to list here.

------------------------

Greaseless ball bearings: A revolutionary spin on a design that's been around for ages

May 26, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/greaseless-ball-bearings-coo-space-adb/37689/

-----------------------

Controlling Surface Topography with Particle-Enhanced Soft Composites

June 11, 2015

An MIT team has developed a way of making soft materials, using a 3-D
printer, with surface textures that can then be modified at will to be
perfectly smooth, or ridged or bumpy, or even to have complex patterns
that could be used to guide fluids.

Scientists
at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have
found a way to use tiny diamonds and graphene to give friction the slip,
creating a new material combination that demonstrates the rare
phenomenon of "superlubricity."

Silicone grease is even being used for lubrication on firearms. Even greases that contain a little lithium, have been used as greases. Many times lithium greases do not work as well on firearms. Often, they have synthetic versions, of this type of grease. They even have
different types of non-toxic lubricants, for use on food grade machines as well.

----------

Electrons and liquid helium advance understanding of zero-resistance

February 2, 2016

The end of Moore's Law, the prediction that transistor density would double every two years, was one of the hottest topics in electronics-related discussions in 2015. Silicon-based technologies have nearly reached the physical limits of the number and size of transistors that can be crammed into one chip, but alternative technologies are still far from mass implementation. The amount of heat generated during operation and the sizes of atoms and molecules in materials used in transistor manufacturing are some of problems that need to be solved for Moore's Law to persist.

Atomic and molecular sizes cannot be changed, but the heat problem is not unsolvable. Recent research has shown that in two-dimensional systems, including semiconductors, electrical resistance decreases and can reach almost zero when they are subjected to magnetic and microwave influence. Electrical resistance produces a loss of energy in the form of heat; therefore, a decrease in resistance reduces heat generation. There are several different models and explanations for the zero-resistance phenomenon in these systems. however, the scientific community has not reached an agreement on this matter because semiconductors used in electronics are complex and processes in them are difficult to model mathematically.

Researchers demonstrate method that reduces friction between two surfaces to almost zero at macroscopic scale

May 15, 2015

As
most people are aware, friction causes energy loss and wear and tear on
mechanical parts—lubricants such as oil are used to help reduce
friction and to dissipate heat, but scientists would really like to find
a way to prevent it from happening in the first place. In this new
effort, the researchers were studying friction properties at the
nanoscale, where it is more about the attractive forces between atoms,
than microscopic imperfections that are present at the macroscopic
scale. They were testing an idea they had, that if one flat material was
coated with graphene and another with a diamond-carbon mixture, there
likely would be little friction when one was slid over the other.

Researchers have discovered a new stretchable, transparent conductor that can be folded or stretched and released, resulting in a large curvature or a significant strain, at least 10,000 times without showing signs of fatigue.

This is a crucial step in creating a new generation of foldable electronics - think a flat-screen television that can be rolled up for easy portability - and implantable medical devices. The work, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pairs gold nanomesh with a stretchable substrate made with polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS.

Flexible foam made from algae

August 25, 2015

Algae is proving to be pretty darn useful – in recent years, it’s been used to produce oxygen, purify wastewater, provide light and serve as a source of biofuel. Now, bioplastics firm Algix and clean tech company Effekt are making flexible foam out of the stuff, too.

Researchers develop a library of elastin-like proteins to help in creating synthetic designs

September 23, 2015

A pair of researchers at Duke University has built a library of protein data that outlines the specific amino acid sequences that control changes of many elastin proteins. In their paper published in the journal Nature Materials, Felipe García Quiroz and Ashutosh Chilkoti describe their research, the making of their library, and their belief that what they have created will help in the development of new synthetic designs for possible use in medical applications.

Proteins are organic compounds essential to all living organisms, they are especially prevalent in components that have structure, such as muscle, skin, hair, etc. They provide structure by self-forming into different shapes under different conditions, two of which are solubility and temperature. Proteins are made of sequences of amino acids—the order and type of which drive the shape of the protein when certain conditions are met. Scientists still do not quite understand how proteins self assemble into the specific 3D shapes they take, nor which amino acids lead to which shapes, or indeed, how the order in which they exist contributes to those shapes.

New technology could mean better chemical analysis on earth and in space

September 24, 2015

A new lightweight, energy-efficient tool for analyzing a material's chemical makeup could improve the detection abilities of various technologies, ranging from bomb-detecting drones to space rovers searching for signs of life, says a Texas A&M University biomedical engineer who is part of the team developing the instrument.

In the field of exotic new materials, we've examined one of the strongest ones and another declared to be impossible;
scientists now report creating "forbidden" materials out of ordinary
table salt that violate classical rules of chemistry. Not only does the
development challenge the theoretical foundation of chemistry, but it is
also expected to lead to the discovery of new exotic chemical compounds
with practical uses and shed light on the deep interiors of planets.
The international team of researchers led by Artem R.
Oganov, a Professor of Crystallography at Stony Brook University,
predicted that taking table salt and subjecting it to high pressure in
the presence of an excess of one of its constituents (either chlorine or
sodium) would lead to the formation of totally unexpected compounds. In
spite of salt being one of the most thoroughly studied chemical
compounds out there, the researchers predicted the formation of
compounds forbidden by classical chemistry, such as Na3Cl and NaCl3.
Their predictions were proven by subsequent experiments.
"Sodium has one electron in its outermost shell, and
chlorine has seven," Weiwei Zhang, the lead author, a Professor of
Physics at China Agricultural University and visiting scholar at
Oganov's lab, tells Gizmag. "When sodium meets chlorine, sodium would
like to give away an electron and chlorine wants to take one according
to the Octet rule. Since one Na can supply only one electron to one Cl,
the only possible combination of these atoms in a compound is 1:1,
rocksalt NaCl. Take NaCl3 as an example, when you try to satisfy three
Cl by one Na, there is no way to distribute electrons according to this
rule. So NaCl3 is forbidden in the classical frame of chemistry..."

----------------------------

Carnivorous plant inspires new super-slippery material

September 23, 2011

Who doesn't like carnivorous plants? They eat pesky bugs, they look like something out of Flash Gordon,
and now it turns out that one of them has inspired a new type of
liquid-repellent surface. The inspirational flora is the pitcher plant,
which is shaped like - well, like a water pitcher, or perhaps a
wide-end-up trumpet. When insects step onto its slippery inner surface,
they lose their footing and fall down into a pool of collected rainwater
in its base, where they are digested. Scientists from Harvard
University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have
copied the structure of that inner surface and come up with a material
that resists not only most liquids, but also ice and bacteria, and it
does so under a wide range of conditions.

January 21, 2013

Researchers at MIT have created several new types of ceramics that all demonstrate a high degree of liquid repellency. All are based, they write in their paper published in the journal Nature Materials, on the oxides of the lanthanides, and unlike most ceramics are extremely hydrophobic.

New material is super water-resistant, cheap and safe

December 16, 2015

Scientists at Rice University, the University of Swansea, the
University of Bristol and the University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis have
developed a new class of hydrocarbon-based material that they say could
be "greener" substitute for fluorocarbon-based materials currently used
to repel water.
Rice chemist Andrew Barron led the research. He says the team took inspiration from the lotus leaf
– one of the most hydrophobic (water-repelling) surfaces known – which
is actually made up of a hierarchy of double structures on the
microscopic and nano scales.

"In the lotus leaf, these [structures] are due to
papillae within the epidermis and epicuticular waxes on top," he said.
"In our material, there is a microstructure created by the agglomeration
of alumina nanoparticles mimicking the papillae and the hyperbranched
organic moieties simulating the effect of the epicuticular waxes."

Hydrophobic Coating Inspired by Water Ferns Could Make Ships Consume 10 Percent Less

Tear-inspired material can be tuned to repel or attract water

April 12, 2013

http://www.gizmag.com/hydrophobic-hydrophilic-material/27051/

Last year, a group of Harvard University scientists led by Dr. Joanna
Aizenberg announced the development of a highly-hydrophobic
(water-repellant) material known as SLIPS,
or Slippery Liquid Porous Surfaces. The material is remarkable, in that
it repels virtually any liquid. Now, Aizenberg and colleagues have
created a new material inspired by human tears, the repellency of which
can be fine-tuned for different applications.
Like SLIPS, the new material consists of a substrate
infused with a continuous liquid film – just like the human eye is
covered with a film of tears. Whereas SLIPS has a rigid substrate,
however, the substrate of the new material is elastic.

---------------------

Magnetic microhair material can change transparency, and make water flow uphill

August 8, 2014

What if your house's windows could automatically reduce the amount of
hot sunlight passing through them, or your car's windshield could cause
rain droplets to bead off to its edges? These things and more could
soon be possible, thanks to a new animal hair-inspired material
developed at MIT.
The material consists of a base layer of transparent
flexible silicone, studded with a dense array of tiny nickel microhairs
(or "micropillars"). At around 70 microns in height and 25 microns in
width, each one is approximately a quarter the diameter of a human hair.
When an external magnetic field is applied at one
side of the array, all of the hairs simultaneously bend towards it. The
degree to which they bend can be controlled by varying the intensity of
the field.

http://www.gizmag.com/magnetic-microhair-material/33291/

------------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 20: Displays

----------------
----------------

---------------------

Graphene champions the next generation 3D display technology

Apr 23, 2015

Moving
holograms like those used in 3D science fiction movies such as Avatar
and Elysium have to date only been seen in their full glory by viewers
wearing special glasses.Now researchers at Swinburne University of Technology
have shown the capacity of a technique using graphene oxide and complex
laser physics to create a pop-up floating display without the need for
3D glasses.

May 04, 2015

There are many different ways to generate a
hologram, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Trying to
maximize the advantages, researchers in a new study have designed a
hologram made of a metamaterial consisting of aluminum nanorods that can
produce light across the entire visible spectrum, and do so in a way
that yields brighter images than other methods.

Researchers
at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems unveil new
technology for motion and shape capture (MoSh) that helps animators jump
the "Uncanny Valley" by turning a few moving dots into detailed body
shapes that jiggle and deform like real humans.

Mar 30, 2015

From smartphones and
tablets to computer monitors and interactive TV screens, electronic
displays are everywhere. As the demand for instant, constant
communication grows, so too does the urgency for more convenient
portable devices—especially devices, like computer displays, that can be
easily rolled up and put away, rather than requiring a flat surface for
storage and transportation.

From smartphones and tablets to computer monitors and interactive TV
screens, electronic displays are everywhere. As the demand for instant,
constant communication grows, so too does the urgency for more
convenient portable devices—especially devices, like computer displays,
that can be easily rolled up and put away, rather than requiring a flat
surface for storage and transportation.

New 3D printing technology creates stronger ceramics

Researchers at HRL Laboratories have developed a 3D printing technology
designed to overcome the limitations of working with traditional ceramic
processing. The process includes a resin formulation that once printed
can be fired and converted into a ceramic that is harder, stronger and
more compatible with ultra-high temperatures.

--------------

Eggshells could find use in ceramics production

February 27, 2014

According to the US Department of Agriculture, every year
approximately 455,000 tons (412,769 tonnes) of discarded eggshells must
be transported and disposed of in the US alone. Now, however, scientists
at the University of Aveiro in Portugal have developed a method of
using such eggshell waste in the production of ceramic goods.

Although the specifics of the technology are still
under wraps, it involves incorporating crushed eggshells into a ceramic
slurry which is subsequently processed "according to a specific protocol
that includes a 3-cycle cooking phase." Samples of porous pavement made
from the slurry exhibit desirable qualities such as porosity and water
absorption, and are overall considered to be of sufficient quality to
meet industry standards...

Eggshells could be used to fight global warming

October 29, 2010

Carbon capture and sequestration
(CCS) is a hot area of research in the effort to fight global warming
through the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and ferreting
it away within carbon soaking materials, a team from the University of
Calcutta has found an unexpected (or should that be uneggspected)
material that could trap carbon from the atmosphere in the form of
eggshells. The team has demonstrated that the membrane that lines an
eggshell can absorb almost seven times its own weight of carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere, allowing the gas to be stored until environmentally
friendly methods of disposing, or even using it, can be found.

Startup announces development of flexiramics—ceramics with paper-like properties

February 3, 2016

Dutch
startup Eurekite has announced on their web page that they have
developed a new kind of ceramic, one that is both flexible and easily
made at varying degrees of thickness. The company (affiliated with the
University of Twente in the Netherlands) is initially marketing the new
product as a replacement for traditional printed circuit board
materials.

Making ceramics that bend without breaking

September 26, 2013

Ceramics are not known
for their flexibility: they tend to crack under stress. But researchers
from MIT and Singapore have just found a way around that problem—for
very tiny objects, at least.

The team has developed a
way of making minuscule ceramic objects that are not only flexible, but
also have a "memory" for shape: When bent and then heated, they return
to their original shapes. The surprising discovery is reported this week
in the journal Science, in a paper by MIT graduate student Alan Lai,
professor Christopher Schuh, and two collaborators in Singapore.

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-ceramics.html#nRlv

---------

Graphene optical lens a billionth of a meter thick breaks the diffraction limit

January 31, 2016

With the development of photonic chips and nano-optics, the old ground
glass lenses can't keep up in the race toward miniaturization. In the
search for a suitable replacement, a team from the Swinburne University
of Technology has developed a graphene microlens one billionth of a
meter thick that can take sharper images of objects the size of a single
bacterium and opens the door to improved mobile phones, nanosatellites,
and computers.

Flexible graphene-based LED clears the way for flexible displays

February 2, 2015

Researchers from the University of Manchester and University of
Sheffield have developed a new prototype semi-transparent,
graphene-based LED device that could form the basis of flexible screens
for use in the next-generation of mobile phones, tablets and
televisions. The incredibly thin display was created using sandwiched
"heterostructures", is only 10-40 atoms thick and emits a sheet of light
across its entire surface.

New flexible material can make any window 'smart'

August 22, 2016

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-flexible-material-window-smart.html

--------------

Limpet's shell could inspire next-gen transparent displays

February 27, 2015

The humble limpet has been receiving a lot of press lately, as
scientists recently determined that the material from which its teeth
are made is officially the world's strongest natural material. Now, an MIT/Harvard study suggests that a specific type of limpet's shell may hold the key to transparent displays that require no internal light source.

Spider's silk has long been the strongest natural material known to man, prompting researchers to attempt to uncover its secrets so they can replicate its remarkable properties in man-made materials.
But scientists now have a new source of inspiration in the form of
limpet teeth, which are made of a material researchers say is
potentially stronger than spider silk, is comparable in strength to the
strongest commercial carbon fibers, and could one day be copied for use
in cars, boats and planes.

http://www.gizmag.com/limpet-teeth-strongest-natural-material/36162/

-------------------

New research points the way to biodegradable displays

October 21, 2015

Electronic waste is a huge environmental problem,
causing harm to the planet and human health because of the toxic
materials used. While this situation is unlikely to change in the near
future, there has been research on using materials that biodegrade.
More recently, scientists have demonstrated a new route to creating
biodegradable electronics by using organic components in screen
displays.

Atmospheric water generator

An atmospheric water generator (AWG), is a device that extracts water from humid ambient air. Water vapor in the air is condensed by cooling the air below its dew point, exposing the air to desiccants, or pressurizing the air. Unlike a dehumidifier, an AWG is designed to render the water potable.
AWGs are useful where pure drinking water is difficult or impossible to
obtain, because there is almost always a small amount of water in the
air that can be extracted. The two primary techniques in use are cooling
and desiccants.

The extraction of atmospheric water may not be completely free of
cost, because significant input of energy is required to drive some AWG
processes. Certain traditional AWG methods are completely passive,
relying on natural temperature
differences, and requiring no external energy source. Research has also
developed AWG technologies to produce useful yields of water at a
reduced (but non-zero) energy cost.

New desalination technology could answer state drought woes

Feb 18, 2015

Could desalination be the answer to
California's drought? As parts of the state become drier, scientists are
looking at ways to turn seawater into drinkable water.
Desalination
has made headlines in recent months as a possible solution to the
state's water shortage. But in addition to being expensive, its
byproduct—salty brine—can harm marine life once it's reintroduced into
the ocean.

A team of researchers from Humboldt State
University and the University of Southern California is hoping to
address those concerns with a new process called Reverse
Osmosis-Pressure Retarded Osmosis (RO-PRO)...

New desalination technique pushes salt to one side with shockwaves

November 13, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/shock-electrodialysis-desalination/40384/

As access to clean water continues to be an issue throughout the
developing world, there's an increased demand for easier ways to turn
contaminated and salty water into something you can drink. Researchers
at MIT may have found a solution using a method they are calling shock
electrodialysis. It uses electric shock waves to separate contaminated
or salty water into two separate streams, with a natural barrier between
each one.

--------

This self-filling water bottle is the ultimate in vaporware

January 28, 2016

Austrian startup Fontus is developing a novel water bottle that is
vaporware in just about every sense of the phrase. Not only does it not
yet exist in the marketplace, but it is claimed to literally pull water
vapor out of the air to fill itself.

Tiny device grabs more solar energy to disinfect water faster

August 15, 2016

Sodium battery contains solution to water desalination

February 4, 2016

Much scientific effort goes into shoring up both our energy and water
supplies for the future, but what if both problems could be addressed by
the same technology? Researchers at the University of Illinois have
come up with a new battery design that not only relies on salt water to
store and release electricity, but removes the salt ions from the water
in the process.

Agenda 21 could restrict water resources, in several different ways.The government would like to be able to tax rainwater.

Some governments would even try to ban the harvesting of rainwater, for personal use.Different governments would even try to ban or tax, collecting water from atmospheric water generators.

Some
people question the environmental impact, that collecting moisture from
the air, with millions of machines at a time collecting water, near the
high desert would have. We know that there is already very little moisture in the
high-desert. Some machines can even make their own moisture, from the
cold and condensation that is created by the energy from the machine.
This is simply done, by using electric power, to power on the machine,
to produce condensation.

We
also can have many options for sustainable groundwater. Recent droughts
in different areas, have caused a problem, with trying to use water as a
natural resource. A good example, is the amount of people in Southern
California, including the amount of water that is being used, in a
desert type area. The world has so much fresh water, that it would seem
that it would be very difficult to ever run out of it.

Some
claim that we should terraform the planet, and create more rain
forests, and promote water in regions such as the rain forests. People have even talked about introducing additional water and
moisture in places like the rain forests, to save these
forests from "drying up." This gets into the debate, including what
would happen when the Poles of the Earth start to shift. Many question
if we should manage our atmosphere, including forests and oceans. Many
people think that we should not terraform the planet. They believe that
if we change too many natural courses on this planet, that it could
create other problems or catastrophes on the planet, that we may not be
able to control. An example would be, is that if we have the technology
to stop a volcano from erupting, should we do it? Some think that if we
stop a volcano from erupting, that this could cause an even greater
build-up, inside of the Earth. This could cause an eruption several
times greater, than if the volcano were to be left alone, and erupted
without interference. The same question is asked, if we should regulate
the levels of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere. If the
atmosphere were to change, and kill off most of the species of animals
on this planet, should we save our planet Earth, from this type of
destruction. Some would claim that this natural cycle happens so often
on the planet. Even though it may take thousands of years for the
atmosphere to re-balance, after a giant catastrophe in the weather. Some
people think that we should let nature take its course. However, many
scientists think that humans should have complete control over trying to
modify and control the atmosphere content of the planet.

Others
believe that maybe it is our job to protect the planet, including the
regulation of the atmosphere. It could be possible to avoid a
catastrophic event, by balancing out the atmosphere on our planet.
However, we can see news articles, including conferences, about people
modifying the weather with lazers. Many people think that companies and
governments, could also abuse this type of technology as well.
-----------

Device that harvests water from thin air wins the James Dyson Award

To
build their pump, the researchers created a superhydrophobic material
by exposing a copper mesh to an alkali solution—the microscopic sized
pockets it created caused water to slide with almost no friction. They
then affixed the mesh to the bottom of a plastic tube that sat
vertically. They next attached another tube to the first creating a
right angle at the top and then attached a very short third tube to the
second at its other end, this one pointing straight down. That was all
it took. To use the pump, a bit of liquid was introduced into the pump,
priming it, then a drop was introduced from beneath the pump, through
the wire mesh. The liquid in the pump rose, because it was repelled from
below, into the second tube and then into the third where it was
expelled.

In
this webinar Prof. Charles Marcus presents an overview of his work
using the Triton dilution refrigerator at the Niels Bohr Institute’s
Center for Quantum Devices, University of Copenhagen. He reviews the
latest advances in dilution refrigerator technology for QIP,
specifically focusing on the integration of high-density RF
interconnects.
The scaling of single- or few-electron spin-qubit
devices to multi-qubit architectures presents a challenge to cryogenic
technology. Particularly demanding is the integration of large numbers
of RF interconnects to samples operating at millikelvin temperatures in
high magnetic fields within physical space, heat load and electrical
noise limits. With its advanced sample loading, integrated magnet
solutions and quantum information processing (QIP)-specific wiring
options, the Triton dilution refrigerator has been adopted as the system
of choice for studies in this exciting area of emerging technology.

The quantum fridge

February 1, 2016

When cold milk is poured into a hot cup of tea, a temperature
equilibrium is reached very quickly. The milk droplets and the tea
particles interact, and after a few moments they all have the same
average energy. This process is called thermalization. It plays a
crucial role in cooling down gases to ultra-low temperatures. But
surprisingly, even gases for which this effect is suppressed can be
cooled. Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) took a closer look at this
phenomenon and found a special quantum-mechanical kind of cooling at
work.
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-quantum-fridge.html

-------------

Solar Cooling System Preserves Food Without Electricity

An eco-friendly and cheap cooling system developed
by a Mexican researcher uses solar energy to maintain temperature of
food and water at nine degrees Celsius for three months.
Refrigerating systems have been under the spot light ever since they were found guilty of polluting the atmosphere with the Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs),
causing a depletion in the ozone layer. As of the 1970s, the negative
effect of these compounds has globally acknowledged and heavily
regulated. Nevertheless, their use in refrigerating systems continues to
be apparent, and it will remain so until year 2020 (2030 for developing
countries), when all CFCs should be faced out, as agreed during a
United Nations-sponsored Montreal summit .
It is somewhat needless
to say that any technology that can accelerate the process of complete
elimination of these chemicals by providing an eco-friendly and
affordable alternative, is more than welcome. One such development comes
from the Institute of Science of the Meritorious University of Puebla
(BUAP), in Mexico, by researcher Susana Elvia Toledo Flores. A solar-powered, eco-friendly, cooling system.

Laser Refrigeration is Fastest, Coolest Chilling Tech Yet

Shape memory alloys the basis for more efficient refrigerant-free cooling

February 4, 2016

Shape memory materials, also known as "metal muscles" or "artificial
muscles," have the ability to snap back into their original shape after
being stretched, squashed, bent, or otherwise deformed. If the material
is a metal alloy, such as nickel-titanium, the deformation changes the
material's crystal lattice structure in what's known as phase
transition, which causes the material to become hotter. Allowing the
material to relax and return to its original form cools it by about 20° C
(36° F) below the ambient temperature.

"In our systems, shape memory alloys (SMAs) are
used to remove heat," says Stefan Seelecke, Professor for Intelligent
Material Systems at Saarland University. "Shape memory means that wires
or sheets made from a nickel-titanium alloy have a certain ability to
remember their original shape: If they undergo deformation, they will
return to their earlier shape, so they are able to tense and flex like
muscles. The fact that they absorb and release heat when they do so is
something we exploit to achieve cooling."

3D-printed bricks can cool a room with water

February 18, 2015

We've previously seen designers use the presence of swimming pools or take advantage of prevailing winds
to help passively cool homes. But what if every brick used to build a
house could cool it down? Design studio Emerging Objects has come out
with 3D-printed porous bricks called Cool Bricks that can be filled with
water to bring down temperatures.

http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-cool-bricks/36144/

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New breakthrough in thermoelectric materials

Apr 02, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-04-breakthrough-thermoelectric-materials.html#ajTabs
A
joint South Korean and American research group has developed a scalable
production method for a state of the art alloy for the use in solid
state thermoelectric devices. This new alloy is nearly twice as
efficient as existing materials and may lead to a new host of
applications. Uses include refrigeration, consumer electronics,
transportation as well as novel devices which have not been produced yet
do to the inefficiencies of existing materials.

French
physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovered a key concept
necessary for thermoelectric (TE) temperature control in 1834. His
findings were so significant, TE devices are now commonly referred to
Peltier devices. Since his work, there have been steady advancements in
materials and design. Despite the technological sophistication Peltier
devices, they are still less energy efficient than traditional
compressor/evaporation cooling.

In the 1960's, Peltier
devices were primarily made from Bismuth-Telluride (Bi2Te3) or
Antimony-Telluride (Sb2Te3) alloys and had a peak efficiency (zT) of
1.1, meaning the electricity going in was only slightly less than the
heat coming out. Since the 1960's there have been incremental
advancements in alloy technology used in Peltier devices.

In
2014, researchers in South Korea at IBS Center for Integrated
Nanostructure Physics along with Samsung Advanced Institute of
Technology, the Department of Nano Applied Engineering at Kangwon
National University, the Department of Energy Science at Sungkyunkwan
University, and Materials Science department at California Institute of
Technology California, USA have formulated a new method for creating a
novel and much more efficient TE alloy.

TE alloys are
special because the metals have an incredibly high melting point.
Instead of melting the metals to fuse them, they are combined through a
process called sintering which uses heat and/or pressure to join the
small, metallic granules. The joint team, including IBS researchers,
used a process called liquid-flow assisted sintering which combined all
three antimony, bismuth and telluride granules into one alloy
(Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3). Additional melted tellurium was used as the liquid
between the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 granules to help fuse them into a solid alloy,
and excess Te is expelled in the process.

By creating
the alloy this way, the joints between the fused grains, also known as
the grain boundaries, took on a special property. Traditionally sintered
Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 have thick, coarse joints which have led to a decrease in
both thermal and electrical conductivity. The new liquid-phase
sintering creates grain boundaries which are organized and aligned in
seams called dislocation arrays. These dislocation arrays greatly reduce
their thermal conduction, leading to an enhancement of their
thermoelectric conversion efficiency.

--------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 23: Vertical & sustainable farming methods

----------------
----------------

---------------------

We
could have billions of people living on other planets, including in the
oceans of our planet and other planets. The carbon could even be made, to be converted to energy or
other minerals, that could biodegrade properly. Imagine the amount of
ideas, cultures, technology and life that we could create in other parts
of the Universe. We need human minds to produce ideas, for advancement in technology.

------------------------------------------

We need an environmentally friendly standard of farming. Food
is not getting to the right places. Too much food is being wasted, while many
people go starving.

---------------------------------

Vertical farming designs & concepts.

We
could make a majority of fibers, from kelp. Seaweed is even a good
source for harvesting food. Some people claim that we can harvest the
carbon from underwater cities, while using the carbon as a source of
energy.

------------------

Underwater Cities in The Future | Full Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs0a6Im9Alk

---------------------

Some people claim that we should conserve our land, and grow food vertically.

Results:
In industry, synthesizing ammonia for fertilizers uses massive amounts
of hydrogen, typically generated from fossil fuels, but in nature, the
nitrogenase enzyme produces ammonia without added hydrogen. In studying
the enzyme, scientists came up against a protein, called the Fe protein.
This little protein delivers electrons to the larger nitrogenase MoFe
enzyme. The smaller protein's actions limit the enzyme's speed.
Recently, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and three
universities found that the smaller protein and larger enzyme roll
across each other, likely pushing at the MoFe surface to deliver
electrons.

Why It Matters: Producing ammonia for the
world's crop fertilizers consumes 1 to 2 percent of all the energy
produced by humankind. Part of that energy is used to generate hydrogen
gas, which is combined with nitrogen gas in the Haber-Bosch process.
This research sheds new light on how an enzyme catalyzes a reaction
without added hydrogen; instead, the enzyme uses protons and electrons.

Methods:
The little Fe protein that delivers the electrons comes under scrutiny,
as it is the dissociation of this protein from the MoFe protein or
enzyme that is the slowest step in the process. And, the dissociation
step must happen 8 times for each molecule of ammonia that is produced.
Expediting or removing this rate-limiting step would provide fundamental
insights into the nature of the enzyme, insights that could be applied
to synthetic catalysts.

Substitution of three amino
acids buried deep in the MoFe protein allows electrons to be delivered
from small molecule electron carriers to support the transformation, or
reduction, of several substrates, including azide to ammonia, hydrazine
to ammonia and protons to molecular hydrogen, or H2...

Different
groups, claim that we should use a system of aquaponics, to grow food
for the world. This in fact, is a good idea. However, I do not think
that 100% of our food, should be grown using aquaponics. Many types of
berries grow wild, this includes other types of bushes and trees that
give off fruit and other types of harvests. We should use a system of
organic gardening, this includes forest gardens, vertical farming and
aquaponics.

Organic farming - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming

------------

Deep Sea Fish Farming in Geodesic Domes: Upgrade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpPZUGIJ2M0

----

Farming and raising livestock on the same land, for hundreds of years, is an art within itself.There
are ways to work with the land, to co-exist. However, the way many
farms mass-produce many crops and livestock, with synthetic chemicals
and runoff from agriculture and livestock production, is not sustainable.

The
question is, the amount of people that the land can sustain, without
having to risk an ecosystem collapse.

In
certain areas in South America, some cultures would only plant crops,
every few years. This would be considered an extremely organic way of
farming and coexisting with nature.Eventually,
certain civilizations started to farm every year, and tear up more
trees to farm. This eventually over a short period of time, caused the
land being farmed on, to degrade the quality of soil for farming. It
even can become more difficult to continue to farm in the same location,
without knowing how to work and till the soil properly. Some claim
that different villages, had to move,
to find new and better land for farming, in order to grow food. This is because certain soil was burnt out.These days,
many farmers import tons of soil, used for production of farming.
Eventually they even discard this soil when their harvest is over, then
import new soil in by trucks, to plant a new harvest. Many claim that
this would be a good example, of how farmers can burn out their soil. It
becomes very difficult for any type of plant to grow naturally, when
soil is burnt out from the use of over-farming. This is why many
farmers try to get thousands of acres. So that they can shift around the
areas where they grow crops on their land.With good
organic farming and crop rotation, farmers can co-exist with the land.
However, we see some farmers these days, have lost touch with many of
these practices, of traditional organic farming.The big debate now, is if we should use a system of monoculture, polyculture or both.

--------------

Monoculture

Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop or plant species in a field at a time. Polyculture,
where more than one crop is grown in the same space at the same time,
is the alternative to monoculture. Monoculture is widely used in modern
industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for increased efficiencies in planting and harvest.

All Natural, Mushroom-Based Pesticide Could Revolutionize Agriculture

May 14, 2015

Could an insecticide made from mushrooms compete with commercial pesticides applied to crops the world over?

Fungus expert Paul Stamets thinks so,
with a product he calls SMART pesticides. They are made from natural
fungi, which kill insects and protect crops without creating toxic
residue and runoff. If adopted, the mushroom pesticides would be a
breath of fresh air in our increasingly toxic environment.

Pesticides can be necessary for
large-scale food production, but they also have harmful effects on the
natural world as well as on human health. Many of the chemicals used in
commercial pesticides, likeammonia, arsenic, benzene, chlorine, dioxins, formaldehyde and glyphosateare dangerous to people even in small doses, and they show up in human bodies after consumption of conventionally-grown food.

Widespread pesticide use is also one
possible culprit for the massive decline in bee populations over the
last decade, as well as a persistent cause of ground and fresh water
pollution.

Some have mentioned using bacterium, for fungicides, pesticides and plant food.

---------------------

Some people think that the world is currently overpopulated, and that we are currently not living as environmentally friendly as we could be, with many of these harmful chemicals going around.
We could have trillions of people living off the planet, and living on other planets, moons and different areas in the Universe. We could harvest ideas from trillions of people, while creating new types of areas for humans and animals to live in.

---------------
---------------

Chapter 24: Clean-up technology

----------------
----------------

---------------------

The
following chapter is dedicated to the preservation of the Earth,
including how to fix contaminated sources of water, soil and atmospheric
pollution.

---------

The problem is that many landfills, have toxic and radioactive chemicals in them. In this chapter, we will go into detail, on what we can do as a civilization, to fix many of these problems.

----------

Superfund

Superfund or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA)
is a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated
with hazardous substances as well as broadly defined "pollutants or
contaminants".
Superfund also gives authority to federal natural resource agencies,
states and Native American tribes to recover natural resource damages
caused by releases of hazardous substances, and it created the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
(ATSDR). CERCLA's broad authority to clean up releases or threatened
releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or
welfare or the (natural) environment was given primarily to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to states (though most states now have and most often use their own versions of CERCLA).

Brownfield land

Brownfield is a term used in urban planning to describe land previously used for industrial purposes or some commercial uses. Such land may have been contaminated with hazardous waste or pollution or is feared to be so.Once cleaned up, such an area can become host to a business development such as a retail park. Land that is more severely contaminated and has high concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, such as a Superfund site, does not fall under the brownfield classification. Mothballed brownfields are properties that the owners are not willing to transfer or put to productive reuse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownfield_land

--------------

If we stopped the burning of fossil fuel, and switched over
to hydrogen and solar, we could reduce a good portion of air pollution.
Air pollution also comes from the manufacturing of industrial products.
This includes air pollution from agriculture production. Even driving on a farm
road, that has been sprayed down with pesticides, fungicides and chemicals, causes extra air
pollution in the environment.

----------------

Big polluters: one massive container ship equals 50 million cars

April 23, 2009

April 23, 2009 The Guardian
has reported on new research showing that in one year, a single large
container ship can emit cancer and asthma-causing pollutants equivalent
to that of 50 million cars. The low grade bunker fuel used by the worlds
90,000 cargo ships contains up to 2,000 times the amount of sulfur
compared to diesel fuel used in automobiles. The recent boom in the
global trade of manufactured goods has also resulted in a new breed of
super sized container ship which consume fuel not by the gallons, but by
tons per hour, and shipping now accounts for 90% of global trade by
volume.

http://www.gizmag.com/shipping-pollution/11526/

-------------------------------------------------------------------

India River Pollution: 80 Percent of Indian Sewage Flows Untreated Into Country's Rivers

World’s highest drug levels entering India stream

PATANCHERU, India
(AP) When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a
plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they
were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed
into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.
And it wasn’t just ciprofloxacin
being detected. The supposedly cleaned water was a floating medicine
cabinet a soup of 21 different active pharmaceutical ingredients, used
in generics for treatment of hypertension, heart disease, chronic liver
ailments, depression, gonorrhea, ulcers and other ailments. Half of the
drugs measured at the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in
the environment, researchers say.
Those Indian factories produce drugs for much of the world, including
many Americans. The result: Some of India’s poor are unwittingly
consuming an array of chemicals that may be harmful, and could lead to
the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria.

----------------------------------

Many
people think that herbal medicine, including new forms of
medicine, can replace many harmful pharmaceuticals. We can see how the chemical
CBD from cannabis, can be used as a form of medicine, to help with
cancer. Others think that even similar medicinal types of medicine,
could be extracted from plants that have been known to numb pain. Many
plants on this planet, have a purpose for different things. This is why
it is important to preserve our forests. Even some plants, trees and
herbs in the past few thousand years, have gone extinct. There is no
telling what types of benefits that many of these extinct plants could
have had. Many of these plants could have been utilized for medical
research. Some even question if we can use fossils, to bring back
certain plants and animals, which is currently being debated around the
globe. Trying to genetically modify extinct species of plants and animals, could also have negative consequences.

-----

Researchers discover how opium poppies synthesize morphine

July 13, 2015

Many people who live in developing countries do not have
access to the pain relief that comes from morphine or other analgesics.
That's because opiates are primarily derived from the opium poppy plant
(Papaver somniferum) and are dependent on the plant health and supply
around the world.

After years
of leading research on the opium poppy, University of Calgary
scientists, Peter Facchini, his PhD student, Scott Farrow, and research
associate Jill Hagel, have characterized a novel gene that encodes the
gateway enzyme in the formation of morphine -which is to say, they've
begun to understand how poppies synthesize the pain killing enzymes. The
discovery opens the door to alternative production systems, aside from
the plant itself.

Farrow, who is building on the
insights Facchini and his team have been gathering over more than 23
years of research into opium poppies, is the lead author of a new paper
that describes one of many significant discoveries arising from
Facchini's research program.

"The
gene we've isolated actually consists of a natural fusion between two
ancestral genes, which encodes the gateway enzyme in the formation of
morphine," says Farrow. "It's really interesting to see these fused
genes in a metabolic pathway. It provides us with a new tool to search
for something missing in other plants as well."

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-opium-poppies-morphine.html#jCp

------- Many people want a solution to the problems
concerning ground contamination, including air and water pollution. We
must be cautious of introducing certain types of cleaning agents and
industrial chemicals into the environment,this includes dispersants and surfactants.

Health and environmental controversy

Surfactants are routinely deposited in numerous ways on land and into
water systems, whether as part of an intended process or as industrial
and household waste. Some of them are known to be toxic to animals,
ecosystems, and humans, and can increase the diffusion of other
environmental contaminants. As a result, there are proposed or voluntary restrictions on the use of some surfactants. For example, PFOS is a persistent organic pollutant as judged by the Stockholm Convention. Additionally, PFOA has been subject to a voluntary agreement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and eight chemical companies to reduce and eliminate emissions of the chemical and its precursors.
The two major surfactants used in the year 2000 were linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) and the alkyl phenol ethoxylates (APE). They break down in the aerobic conditions found in sewage treatment plants and in soil to the metabolitenonylphenol, which is thought to be an endocrine disruptor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant
-----We should be cautious of adding more harmful chemicals in the ground, to try and clean up existing harmful chemicals in the soil and water.
------

There exists many natural remedies, to clean and purify water and soil.

We can use simple materials from mushrooms, including plants, to clean up pollution from the ground.

-------

Mushrooms – Nature’s Recyclers and Pollution-Zappers

For ages, man has eaten mushrooms as a gustatory
delight, some even to the point of intoxication like medicine men and
other people out for a good time. But there is more to these wonderful
plants than meet the eye.

For one thing, they’re Mother Nature’s
recyclers. After animals and plants die, they decompose them back to
dust so that they can be used again to bring about new life. The stuff
they decompose isn’t limited to plants and animals, though. They can
also feed on plastic, just like the Pestalotiopsis microspora, a fungus discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon that has an appetite for polyurethane.
And the Pestalotiopsis microspora
is not alone in its earth saving abilities.

Researchers have
discovered fungi that absorb toxic heavy metals without suffering side
effects, effectively removing these from the environment. There are
even some mushrooms that will eat up radioactive waste and may be used
to help remediate Fukushima.

Using plants to clean contaminated soil

MURUNGA - THE ULTIMATE ANSWER TO POLLUTED WATER

http://infolanka.com/org/diary/13.html

---------------

Removing chromium from polluted water using hyacinth

2017-09-07

The new method uses water hyacinth, a weed known for its ability to
spread rapidly over water bodies. It is used for cleansing polluted
water bodies owing to its remarkable capacity of absorbing pollutants.

Removing fluoride with nanoparticles

2017-08-29

A low-cost method to remove fluoride
from drinking water with specially made teabag-like pouches has been
developed by a team of Indian researchers. This method uses pouches covered with nanoparticles synthesised
from organically-grown jojoba seeds to remove fluoride from water.
Jojoba is easily available and nanoparticles used (iron and aluminum)
are synthesised from waste byproducts of the oil extraction process from jojoba seeds.After
synthesis, nanoparticles are soaked onto a foam material—polyurethane
foam—wherein they get stuck to the surface of the foam. Infusion pouches
or bags are then made from the nanoparticle-coated foam sheet. The
nanoparticles on the pouches attract fluoride in the water and they too
get stuck to the surface of the pouch. This process is a commonly used
water purification method called adsorption. http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/removing-fluoride-nanoparticles

----------

Copper and cadmium removal from synthetic industrial wastewater using chitosan and nylon 6.

Peanut Husks Could Be Used Clean Up Waste Water

June 12, 2015

Catalysts created by Carnegie Mellon University chemist
Terrence J. Collins effectively and safely remove a potent and dangerous
endocrine disruptor from wastewater.
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-taml-catalysts-safely-effectively-estrogenic.html#nRlv

-------

Soils could keep contaminants in wastewater from reaching groundwater, streams

January 22, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-01-soils-contaminants-wastewater-groundwater-streams.html#nRlv
With
endocrine-disrupting compounds affecting fish populations in rivers as
close as Pennsylvania's Susquehanna and as far away as Israel's Jordan, a
new research study shows that soils can filter out and break down at
least some of these emerging contaminants. The results suggest that
water pollution can be diminished by spraying treated wastewater on land
rather than discharging it directly into streams, according to
researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Using
Penn State's 600-acre "Living Filter"—a wastewater reuse system less
than a mile from the University Park campus—as a laboratory, researchers
tested soil samples for the presence and accumulation of three
estrogens. For almost three decades, more than 500 million gallons of
treated wastewater from the campus has been sprayed annually from
irrigation pipes onto this site, which is composed of cropland,
grassland and forest.

To understand how
endocrine-disrupting compounds behave in the soil, researchers extracted
samples and analyzed for two natural estrogens, 17-beta-estradiol and
estrone—hormones naturally produced by humans and animals, such as dairy
cattle—and one synthetic estrogen, 17-alpha-ethynylestradiol—a compound
in birth-control pills.

---------------

CRIQ and INRS awarded a patent for a system that removes micropollutants from wastewater

January 12, 2016

In
preliminary studies the patented membrane bioreactor system eliminated
99% of bisphenol-A (BPA) and other compounds in heavily contaminated
wastewater. BPA, which is used in the manufacture of plastics, is a
micropollutant thought to disrupt various physiological mechanisms. The
system is designed for installation at factory outlets to treat
wastewater at the source and can also be incorporated into wastewater
treatment plants.

Non-toxic corn starch could replace cyanide in gold mines

May 14, 2013

In the gold-mining process, the precious metal is often
extracted from low-grade ore in a technique known as gold cyanidation.
As its name suggests, the process utilizes highly-poisonous cyanide,
some of which ends up entering the environment in the mines’ tailings.
That’s not so good. Scientists at Illinois’ Northwestern University,
however, recently announced their discovery of a new gold recovery
process that’s based on a non-toxic component of corn starch.

Companies such as Monsanto, and DuPont, have investments in plastic parts for reverse osmosis machines.

------

Four dollars for a gallon of water? The dream of Monsanto and other corporations wanting to privatize water

April 18, 2012

http://www.naturalnews.com/035603_water_monopoly_privatization.html

--------Companies such as BP, including Procter & Gamble, have financial gain and incentive, for chemicals that clean-up and purify water.

-------------

Corexit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corexit

Corexit (often styled COREXIT) is a product line of oil dispersants used during oil spill response operations. It is produced by Nalco Company, associated with BP and Exxon and an indirect subsidiary of Ecolab. Corexit was originally developed by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey.
Corexit is typically applied by aerial spraying or spraying from ships
directly onto an oil slick. On contact with the dispersant, oil that
would otherwise float on the surface of the water is emulsified
into tiny droplets and sinks or (in the unusual case of sub-surface
application) remains suspended in the water. In theory this allows the
oil to be more rapidly degraded by bacteria (bioremediation) and prevents it from accumulating on beaches and in marshes.

Criticism

EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman gave an interview to Democracy Now during the height of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
news coverage and explained his views on the use of Corexit, saying
"EPA now is taking the position that they really don’t know how
dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how
dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez
case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now.
The average death age is around fifty. It’s very dangerous, and it’s an
economic — it’s an economic protector of BP, not an environmental
protector of the public."

Marine toxicologist Riki Ott blamed BP for poisoning locals with Corexit, which she alleges they used to hide their responsibility. In August 2010 she wrote an open letter to the Environmental Protection Agency alleging that dispersants were still being used in secret and demanding that the agency take action.[102] The letter was published in the Huffington Post. Ott told Al Jazeera, "The dispersants used in BP's draconian experiment contain solvents, such as petroleum distillates and 2-butoxyethanol.
Solvents dissolve oil, grease, and rubber. It should be no surprise
that solvents are also notoriously toxic to people, something the
medical community has long known."

----------

Safer Water Worldwide

CINCINNATI (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- In the United
States, with just the turn of a knob, clean, drinkable water is right at
our fingertips. That's not the case in many parts of the world. But new
technology is making it possible for people worldwide to have drinkable
water ... With a stir of a powerful powder.

You wouldn't drink dirty water straight out of a river. But in developing nations, tap water is not a choice.

"People have to share their drinking
water sources with their animals. People many times drink from open
ponds or streams," Greg Allgood, Ph.D., of P&G Children's Safe
Drinking Water Program based in Cincinnati, tells Ivanhoe.

...And that leads to deadly water-borne
illnesses. Dr. Allgood, an industrial toxicologist, is director of
P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program, a non-profit venture
for the consumer-products giant.

http://www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2006/12/222a.html

---------

Plugging up leaky graphene: New technique may enable faster, more durable water filters

Plugging up leaky graphene: New technique may enable faster, more durable water filters

May 07, 2015

We
could make steam from ocean water, in order to solve the problems with
drought, in certain areas. This includes atmospheric water generators.
It is still debated the impact of some of these devices that would take
moisture out of areas that would need moisture, such as a high desert.
This would also include a tax on rainwater. Many people, include many
native American groups, claim that it is their right to have free water,
without being taxed. It seems that we should be able to make an
abundance of fresh water, from the ocean. We even have new technology,
for environmentally friendly ways to desalinate fresh water from the
ocean. Some people even dig out pools, called condensation pools, to collect moisture from the sky, and turn it into water. For more information on how we can collect and save water, view the article titled " Pollution Science 101 - Cancer Investigated (California) - http://pollutionscience101cancerinvestigated.blogspot.com/ ."

Solar Sponge Efficiently Makes Steam

Featured Story: Stormwater Runoff

Here’s how you can prevent chemicals, garbage and other debris from winding up on the local beach

http://www.epa.gov/region9/water/npdes/stormwater-feature.html

Stormwater systems were originally intended to route rainwater quickly
off the streets during a heavy storm. Unfortunately, these systems can
carry pollutants such as pesticides, bacteria and chemicals through city
streets and straight to our waters. Stormwater pollution can include
chemicals, fast food wrappers, cigarette butts, Styrofoam cups, sewage
overflow, cooking oil, bacteria from pet waste, used motor oil,
fertilizers, paint and construction debris.

Used oil from a single oil change can pollute up to one million
gallons of freshwater. Improper disposal of used oil, which includes oil
leaking from cars, contributes significantly to stormwater pollution.
The EPA estimates that American households improperly dump about 193
million gallons of used oil every year, or roughly the equivalent of 17
Exxon Valdez oil spills.
And household cleaners can hurt the environment as well, if not
disposed of properly. One ounce of household bleach requires 312,000
ounces of water to be safe for fish. Even biodegradable soaps can pose
problems for aquatic life — in order for one ounce of biodegradable
detergent to be safe for fish, it needs to be diluted by almost 20,000
ounces of water.

Bio-Remediation or Bio-Hazard? Dispersants, Bacteria and Illness in the Gulf

The Magnetic Wand That Cleans Oil Spills: Upgrade

Dec 12, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYM324yDH-Q

----------

Environmentally Correct Oil Spill Cleanup Solution with Hay & Straw

May 13, 2010

In this video posted by the Walton County (FL) Sheriff's Department,
Darryl Carpenter, Vice President of Florida-based CW Roberts Contracting
and sub-contractor Otis Goodson, shows how hay, hay grass and straw can
be used as a very effective environmentally correct oil spill cleanup
solution.

In a scene reminiscent of a primetime cooking show, the
Carpenter and Goodson video shows how Coastal Bermuda and Bahia hay
could be scattered over the surface of the ocean with hay blowers to
absorb the oil. To start, the two men pour oil into two large pans of
water, stir in the hay, add a little "wave action," then skim off the
oil-soaked hay...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7JkFW5nwMQ

----------------

Sponges made from wood waste may soak up oil spills

May 6, 2014

As the Deepwater Horizon
incident showed us, oil spills can be huge environmental disasters.
That said, there are also considerable challenges in dealing with the
waste products generated by the forestry and agriculture industries.
Now, scientists from Switzerland's Empa research group have come up with
a method of addressing the one problem with the other – they've
developed sponges made from cellulose waste, that can soak up 50 times
their own weight in oil.

Pollution-absorbing bikini "cleans the water" while its wearer swims

We've previously heard about air-purifying clothing,
so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise to find out that scientists
have now developed the aquatic equivalent – a bikini top that filters
pollutants out of the water around the wearer. And yes, the technology
could have other uses...

Sponge is derived from heated sucrose, and is at once highly
hydrophobic (it repels water) while also being very good at absorbing
harmful contaminants. This means that it can fill up just on pollutants –
up to 25 times its own weight worth of them – without also becoming
saturated with water.

The contaminants are stored in pores within the
material, so they shouldn't come into contact with the wearer. In fact,
the only way of releasing them is to heat the Sponge to at least 1,000
ºC (1,832 ºF). This can be done up to 20 times before the inserts start
losing their absorbency...

Designing Wetlands to Remove Drugs and Chemical Pollutants

Water Pollution: Sun-Powered Cleanup Crews

- Todd learned that species in different ecosystems—such as those in
streams, ponds, marshes, and tide pools—have remarkable capacities to
self-clean and self-repair. He found that plants such as rushes filter
out suspended materials in the water. Others absorb toxic metals such as
mercury and lead, and still others produce antibodies that kill
organisms capable of causing disease...

Thus, John Todd and his colleagues at the New Alchemy Institute invented
Living Machines to do the same job as nature. Using a collection of
tanks that hold different aquatic ecosystems, Living Machines (also
known as Eco-Machines) take black water, or sewage, and return it to its
natural state, unpolluted by human waste.

Ocean Cleanup project to test its first trash-catching barriers in Dutch waters

December 30, 2015

Scooping up all the plastic waste in the world's oceans would be a
massive undertaking given that scientists estimate there's around 5 trillion pieces
of it currently bobbing about in the water. But the Ocean Cleanup
project believes it is up to the challenge and has today announced plans
for the first real-world test of its rubbish collection barriers off
the coast of The Netherlands.

Ocean-friendly Seabin sucks up surrounding sea trash

December 21, 2015

The mounting plastic waste in the world's oceans has been the subject of
of some pretty bold environmental undertakings, perhaps none more so
than the Ocean Cleanup Project
aiming to eradicate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Seabin Project
represents a smaller-scale approach, but it is noble in its aspirations
all the same. Installation in ports and marinas sees this
ocean-friendly trash can suck up the surrounding debris and even remove
oil from the water.

Sensor detects toxins leaching from plastic

December 10, 2015

In much the same way PAC-MAN gobbles through an
intense maze of dots eating and destroying its aggressors, researchers
from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic
University have revealed for the first time how a similar mechanism in
the eye lens does exactly the same thing. They have discovered that
cells in close proximity to each other can sense when a cell is dying
due to environmental stressors like UV light, smoke and other
pollutants, and eat the cell before it becomes toxic.In
a study just published in the Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology, these researchers not only demonstrate that this happens with
lens cells, but they uncover the molecules that are required to do it.
They also reveal that the molecules needed for the cells to eat each
other are degraded by UV light. And when that happens, the cells lose
the ability to eat each other. Since these systems are not confined to
the eye lens and diseases of the eye such as cataracts, uncovering the
mechanisms and functions will provide important information in more
complex tissues and disease states.

Polymer breakthrough could revolutionize water purification

December 22, 2015

We've all seen the Febreze air fresheners, which
employ a derivative of corn starch to trap invisible air pollutants in
the home and remove unwanted odors.

A team of Cornell
researchers has used the same material found in Febreze, cyclodextrin,
to develop a technique that could revolutionize the water-purification
industry.

The team is led by Will Dichtel, associate
professor of chemistry and chemical biology and a 2015 MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship winner. His group invented a porous form of
cyclodextrin that has displayed uptake of pollutants through adsorption
at rates vastly superior to traditional activated carbon – 200 times
greater in some cases.

Activated carbons have the
advantage of larger surface area than previous polymers made from
cyclodextrin – "more sites for pollutants to stick to," Dichtel said –
but they don't bind pollutants as strongly as cyclodextrin.

"What
we did is make the first high-surface-area material made of
cyclodextrin," Dichtel said, "combining some of the advantages of the
activated carbon with the inherent advantages of the cyclodextrin. When
you combine the best features of those two materials, you get a material
that's even better than either class.

----------

Scientists make "Impossible Material" ... by accident

July 30, 2013

In an effort to create a more viable material for drug delivery, a team
of researchers has accidentally created an entirely new material thought
for more than 100 years to be impossible to make. Upsalite is a new
form of non-toxic magnesium carbonate with an extremely porous surface
area which allows it to absorb more moisture at low humidities than any
other known material. "The total area of the pore walls of one gram of
material would cover 800 square meters (8611 sq ft) if you would 'roll
them out'", Maria Strømme, Professor of Nanotechnology at the Uppsala
University, Sweden tells Gizmag. That's roughly equal to the sail area
of a megayacht. Aside from using substantially less energy to create
drier environments for producing electronics, batteries and
pharmaceuticals, Upsalite could also be used to clean up oil spills,
toxic waste and residues.

'Dry water' could be used to store carbon dioxide

August 25, 2010

http://www.gizmag.com/dry-water-stores-carbon-dioxide/16138/

You know, I’m pretty sure I remember a Far Side cartoon or
something, where someone was selling powdered water – “Just add water!”
Well, dry water isn’t quite the same thing. It’s 95 percent liquid
water, but that water takes the form of tiny droplets each encased in a
tiny globe of silica. The resultant substance is dry and granular. It
first came to light in 1968, and was used in cosmetics. More recently, a
University of Liverpool research team has been looking into other
potential uses for the substance. They have found several, but most
interesting is its ability to store gases such as carbon dioxide.
In laboratory experiments, study leader Professor
Andrew Cooper and his team found that dry water absorbed over three
times as much CO2 as uncombined water and silica in the same amount of
time. The gas combined with the water molecules to form a storable
hydrate, which Cooper believes makes it ideal for reducing global
warming.
The Liverpool
team also found that dry water could be used to store methane gas. As
methane is a component of natural gas, they believe this discovery could
make natural gas a more environmentally-viable energy source. They
suggest that dry water could be used to absorb and transport the methane
from stranded deposits of natural gas, or as a storage medium for
methane fuel for cars.

-----------------

Sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere to create carbon nanofibers

August 20, 2015

Carbon nanofibers hold tremendous potential. They may one day be put to use in tougher bulletproof vests, artificial muscles or rebuilding damaged hearts,
just to name a few possibilities. But could the greatest gift these
little wonders offer humanity be not what they bring into the world but
what they take out of it? Scientists have developed a technique that
could pull the mounting carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and transform
it into carbon nanofibers, resulting in raw materials for use in
anything from sports gear to commercial airliners.

New material promises more efficient carbon capture

March 12, 2015

We've already seen a number of technologies developed for capturing carbon dioxide emissions
from smokestacks or other sources, but many of them have a limitation –
in order to reclaim the captured CO2 for disposal, a considerable
amount of energy is needed. Now, however, scientists at the University
of California, Berkeley have developed a new carbon-capture material
that requires far less energy in order to give up its payload.
The material is a type of metal-organic framework
(MOF), which are composites made from metal and organic compounds. In
this case, the metal is either magnesium or manganese (depending on the
application) and the organic compounds are nitrogen-based diamines.
Like other MOFs, it has a porous structure featuring microscopic parallel channels.
When the correct temperature and pressure are
maintained, CO2 molecules in air passing through those channels bind
with the material. The process gets more effective as the filtration
process continues, as subsequent molecules bind with those that are
already trapped in the MOF.
The temperature at which it works can range from room
temperature to over 100 ºF (38 ºC) depending on how the diamines are
synthesized, while the required pressure varies with the type of metal
used. Once the material is saturated, it can be made to release the CO2
molecules simply by heating it to a temperature that's a total of 50 ºC
(90 ºF) warmer than the temperature at which they were captured.
By contrast, many power plants currently utilize a
carbon-capture technique in which flue gases are filtered by being
bubbled through water containing amines (of which diamines are one
type), the CO2 molecules binding with them. In order to subsequently
release the captured CO2 from the amines, however, the water has to be
heated to a temperature of 120 to 150 ºC (250 to 300 ºF). According to
the university, the whole process can sometimes consume up to 30 percent
of the power generated at the plant.
Plans now call for the material to be tested in a
pilot study at a power plant. Lead scientist Prof. Jeffrey Long also
hopes that it could be used to purify the air in submarines, or even
aboard the International Space Station.

http://www.gizmag.com/carbon-capture-mof/36525/

--------

Liquid laundry additive turns clothes into air purifiers

October 1, 2012

A laundry additive created by researchers from the University of
Sheffield and the London College of Fashion turns clothing into a
photocatalytic material that can help remove nitrogen oxides (NOx) from
the air. One of the most prominent air pollutants, nitrogen oxides are
emitted from the exhausts of ICE-powered vehicles and aggravate asthma
and other respiratory diseases. The researchers claim one person getting
around town in clothing treated with the additive for a day would be
able to remove roughly the same amount of nitrogen oxides produced by
the average family car each day.

Coffee grounds recycled as carbon capture material

September 8, 2015

Coffee grounds are not exactly noxious despoilers of the environment,
but many millions of tons of them are generated every year and simply
disposed of with other vegetable matter and food waste. Now, researchers
have devised a way to utilize this innocuous waste product to get rid of a much
more dangerous one. By modifying used coffee grounds into a
carbon capture material, the new product may provide a simple, inexpensive way to
remove a prolific
and harmful greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

Study shows using oat hulls for power has considerable benefits to the environment and human health

September 25, 2015

Biomass
burning sometimes gets a bad rap. That's because many associate the
burning of living and dead vegetation with human-caused fires and
clearing of land that release unhealthy particles and gases that spur
global warming.

But what if you burned
biomass in a controlled environment, such as in a power plant, that at
least partially replaces using a fossil fuel? Would there be
demonstrable environmental and health benefits?

In a
new study, researchers at the University of Iowa report that burning oat
hulls had considerable benefits to the environment as well as to human
health. The study examined the practices at the UI Power Plant, where
technicians have burned a mix of oat hulls and coal for more than a
decade. The researchers found a 50-50 oat hulls-coal mix, when compared
to burning only coal, reduced fossil carbon-dioxide emissions by 40
percent and significantly reduced the release of particulate matter,
hazardous substances, and heavy metals.

Banana compost could boost crop yields, a study finds

We
must have regulations put in place, so that companies do not release
unregulated genetically modified plants, into the wilderness. This has
already happened with unregulated genetically modified wheat, being
released in Oregon. Many question how we can stop the damage that has
been done, from bad genetic experiments that harm the planet.

We
must question if it is worth the risk, to continue research in
genetically modified plants and animals, especially in certain areas of
research. Such as what Monsanto is doing to corn, soy and other plants.

What
if it were possible to genetically modify a plant, that could balance
out the atmosphere. Many also question that if we try to tamper with
natural disasters, such as how a volcano could change the chemical
composition of our atmosphere. That this could interfere with the
natural balance of this planet, and that it could have consequences
later on. With new types of technology, it could be possible to save our
civilization, including a lot of the wildlife, such as trees and animals,
from natural disasters and extinction.

---------------

Pollution-Busting Plants

Transgenic trees and plants may break down the pollutants left behind at sites ranging from former factories to firing ranges

Rapid
decontamination of an aqueous solution by a freely moving
microscrubber: this scenario has been realized by American scientists
for the sequestration of CO2 from water. In the journal Angewandte
Chemie, they introduce their concept of enzymatic conversion of CO2 into
solid calcium carbonate, which is greatly facilitated by the use of
self-propelled micromotors that act as a movable enzyme support.

The
on-site mineralization of the gaseous CO2 into solid and durable
carbonate salts is one of the options that scientists consider feasible
for tackling the issue of the ongoing and massive man-made release of
carbon dioxide by the combustion of fossil fuels. Calcium carbonate is
one of the preferred storage forms for CO2, and marine organisms have
piled up layers of calcium carbonate as thick as mountains by
bioconversion of carbon dioxide over millions of years, However, the
uncatalyzed formation of carbonates from carbon dioxide in aqueous
environments is too slow to be practically applicable for large-scale
CO2 sequestration by man. Joseph Wang and his group at the University of
California, San Diego, have now greatly speeded up this conversion by a
cunning chemical-nanoengineering approach. "Our approach combines the
biocatalytic activity of carbonic anhydrase [a zinc metalloenzyme that
catalyzes the hydration of CO2 to form bicarbonate] with the
self-propulsion of chemically powered micromotors through CO2-saturated
samples to act as highly efficient mobile biocatalytic microscrubbers,"
they write. The main advantage of this method is the automatic
self-mixing and scrubbing of the reaction solution just by adding
environmentally friendly hydrogen peroxide, the "fuel" of the
micromotors.

By ‘Editing’ Plant Genes, Companies Avoid Regulation

JAN. 1, 2015

Its
first attempt to develop genetically engineered grass ended
disastrously for the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. The grass escaped into
the wild from test plots in Oregon in 2003, dooming the chances that the
government would approve the product for commercial use.

Yet
Scotts is once again developing genetically modified grass that would
need less mowing, be a deeper green and be resistant to damage from the
popular weedkiller Roundup. But this time the grass will not need
federal approval before it can be field-tested and marketed.

Scotts and several other companies are developing genetically modified crops
using techniques that either are outside the jurisdiction of the
Agriculture Department or use new methods — like “genome editing” — that
were not envisioned when the regulations were created.

The department has said,
for example, that it has no authority over a new herbicide-resistant
canola, a corn that would create less pollution from livestock waste,
switch grass tailored for biofuel production, and even an ornamental
plant that glows in the dark.

The trend alarms critics of biotech crops, who say genetic modification can have unintended effects, regardless of the process.

“They are using a technical loophole so that what are clearly genetically engineered crops
and organisms are escaping regulation,” said Michael Hansen, a senior
scientist at Consumers Union. He said the grass “can have all sorts of
ecological impact and no one is required to look at it.”

Even
some people who say the crops are safe and the regulations overly
burdensome have expressed concern that because some crops can be left
unregulated, the whole oversight process is confusing and illogical, in
some cases doing more harm than good.

In November’s Nature Biotechnology,
plant researchers at the University of California, Davis, wrote that
the regulatory framework had become “obsolete and an obstacle to the
development of new agricultural products.”

But
companies using the new techniques say that if the methods were not
labeled genetic engineering, novel crops could be marketed or grown in
Europe and other countries that do not readily accept genetically
modified crops.

Freedom
from oversight could also open opportunities for smaller companies and
university breeders and for the modification of less common crops. Until
now, in part because of the costs associated with regulation, crop
biotechnology has been dominated by Monsanto and a handful of other big
companies working mainly on widely grown crops like corn and soybeans.

“It
enables small companies to develop products, and even university
start-ups,” said Luc Mathis, chief executive of Cellectis Plant
Sciences, which recently received a regulatory exemption for a potato it says will make French fries less unhealthy.

An
industry-sponsored study said that the large companies spend an average
of $136 million on the development of a genetically engineered crop,
including $35 million in regulatory costs. The Agriculture Department
once took two to five years to review applications, though it is trying
to reduce that to 13 to 16 months.

Genetically
engineered crops, popularly called genetically modified organisms or
G.M.O.s, typically have genes from other organisms inserted into their
DNA. The most popular ones, like Roundup-resistant soybeans and
insect-resistant corn, use genes from bacteria...

Q&A: Geoengineering Is ‘A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come

03.23.10

http://www.wired.com/2010/03/hacktheplanet-qa/

----------------------------

We
can see many of the bad problems with geoengineering in food. We have
seen many of the good prospects, from geoengineering in certain medical
fields. However, some think that we should not tamper with
geoengineering, and let nature take its course. This is simply because
companies such as Monsanto and DuPont, have already endangered the
planet, with genetically modified plants and chemicals. However,
advancements in recent biotechnology, have made many people wonder, if
geoengineering is a good or bad idea. This includes the possibility of
new experiments, on genetically modified organisms, including
genetically modified bacteria and viruses.

--------------------

----------------
----------------

Chapter 25: Toxic clean-up technology

----------------
----------------

---------------------

When
we look at the BP Oil spill. We can see the problem that oil can cause
to the environment, and living beings, over a short and extended period
of time. People have been making plastics out of oil, for many years.
There are natural types of sheets and rocks, made of natural oil-made
plastics, made from fossil fuel, under the
Earth. Using
a little oil is not that big of a problem, honestly. However, the way
that we consume, burn and drill for oil these days, is questionably
causing problems to living beings, including the environment.Many
people see the amount of fossil fuel being drilled for many plastics
and synthetic fibers. Then when plastic and products made from fossil
fuel enter the environment, in excess. This can cause problems to the
wildlife in the area.If the oils to make this plastic,
were from plant based oils, these plastics might not pose as serious of
a threat to the environment.

------------

There
are many synthetic chemicals used in scientific experiments. There are
constantly new inventions, with these synthetic chemicals and fibers. We
must question, to what excess, are many of these scientific
experiments, with these chemicals, doing to our environment. We still do
not know, the long term effects of these experiments, with harmful
chemicals. This includes genetically modified chemicals as well. Many question if we
can design a way, in order to remove a lot of the toxic waste, that we
see in landfills. We have several ways of trying to remove waste, it can be a problem many times, with microscopic particles, including air
pollution. It is debated, when we try to destroy materials and matter,
the exact amount of materials that stay intact and exist on a
microscopic level. Many microscopic materials, cannot even be detected with the naked eye.

--------------------

High-Powered Plasma Turns Garbage Into Gas

01.20.12

http://www.wired.com/2012/01/ff_trashblaster/

----------------

Plasma arc recycling

Some
people think that a more environmentally friendly way of cremation by
fire, would be to use solar power from the Sun. This could be better
than cutting down trees, than having to burn wood or coals for fire.

-------------------

Melting steel with solar power

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tt7RG3UR4c

---------------

Giant Magnifier Reaches 5,000 Degrees Using Only Sunlight

It was created to research our most powerful weapons, but it's also used to try to protect Earth from cataclysmic destruction.

Driven
by the need to find ways of separating, recycling and reducing nuclear
waste, chemists at The University of Nottingham are developing our
understanding of how uranium interacts with elements from around the
periodic table to potentially help improve the selective extraction of
spent uranium in nuclear waste clean-up.

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-spent-uranium-nuclear-clean-up.html#jCp

----------

Recycling nuclear waste via advanced reactor design

May 28th, 2015

An
advanced nuclear reactor under development by Hitachi could help solve
the nuclear waste problem, and University of Michigan researchers were
involved in verifying its safe performance through computer simulations.

The
U-M team worked with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. After more safety
analysis, Hitachi plans to move forward with a prototype of the
"resource-renewable boiling water reactor" in the next few years.

One
of the major technological hurdles for nuclear energy is developing
systems to dispose of the waste produced by typical reactors. It must be
sealed away for hundreds of millennia while the radioactivity naturally
decreases.

Hitachi's new design would burn off the
longest-lived radioactive materials, called transuranics, shortening
that isolation period to a few centuries. This would recycle the nuclear
waste to produce yet more energy and reduce the amount that must be
stowed away.

Graphene, the finest filter

January 5, 2016

Graphene
can simplify production of heavy water and help clean nuclear waste by
filtering different isotopes of hydrogen, University of Manchester
research indicates.

Writing in Science, a team led by Sir Andre
Geim demonstrated that using membranes made from graphene can act as a
sieve, separating protons – nuclei of hydrogen – from heavier nuclei of
hydrogen isotope deuterium.

The process could mean producing
heavy water for nuclear power plants could be ten times less energy
intensive, simpler and cheaper using graphene.

One of the
hydrogen isotopes, deuterium, is widely used in analytical and chemical
tracing technologies and, also, as heavy water required in thousands of
tons for operation of nuclear power stations.

The heaviest
isotope, tritium, is radioactive and needs to be safely removed as a
byproduct of electricity generation at nuclear fission plants. Future
nuclear technology is based on fusion of the two heavy isotopes.

The
current separation technologies for production of heavy water are
extremely energy intensive, and have presented a major scientific and
industrial problem. Now graphene promises do so efficiently.

Researchers
tested whether deuterons – nuclei of deuterium – can pass through
graphene and its sister material boron nitride. They fully expected
deuterons to easily pass through, as existing theory did not predict any
difference in permeation for both isotopes.

The researchers
were surprised to find that deuterons were not only effectively sieved
out by their one atom thick membranes, but were sieved with a high
separation efficiency.

The discovery makes monolayers of graphene
and boron nitride attractive as separation membranes to enrich mixtures
of deuterium and tritium.

Furthermore, the researchers showed
that the separation is fully scalable. Using chemical-vapor-deposited
(CVD) graphene, they built centimetre-sized devices to effectively pump
out hydrogen from a mixture of deuterium and hydrogen.

Dr Marcelo
Lozada-Hidalgo, University of Manchester postdoctoral researcher and
first author of the paper, said: "This is really the first membrane
shown to distinguish between subatomic particles, all at room
temperature.

"Now that we showed that it is a fully scalable technology, we hope it will quickly find its way to real applications."

Professor
Irina Grigorieva, who co-authored the research, said: "We were stunned
to see that a membrane can be used to separate subatomic particles.

"It
is a really simple set up. We hope to see applications of these filters
not only in analytical and chemical tracing technologies but also in
helping to clean nuclear waste from radioactive tritium."

----------------

Many
have even mentioned about using genetically modified archaea
(bacteria), that could eat and digest uranium, including other toxic
waste. The bacteria could turn the toxic waste, into a different
chemical structure, that may not be as toxic, or could biodegrade
properly. However, some question if this type of bacteria, could pose a threat to the environment.

------------------------------------

For uranium cleanup ... bacteria?

May 19, 2006

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/may24/criddle-052406.html

Bacteria are back
Bioremediation was used in the 1980s to clean
up toxic organics, mainly spills of fuels and solvents. Bacteria
basically ate the fuels—chomping down long-chain hydrocarbons—or they
"breathed" the solvents and created nontoxic forms.
"Microorganisms also 'breathe' metals like uranium, converting it
into a form that is immobile because it does not appreciably dissolve in
water," said Nyman, a doctoral student whose laboratory studies helped
to guide operations in the field. After microbes convert the uranium,
it's "just sitting there, like a rock," Criddle said. "In future
studies, we hope to see how stable we can make that 'rock.' Ideally, it
will remain in that form for thousands of years."

---------------------------------

Scientists develop material to remove radioactive contaminants from drinking water

April 13, 2011

A combination of forest byproducts and crustacean shells may be
the key to removing radioactive materials from drinking water,
researchers from North Carolina State University have found.
"As
we're currently seeing in Japan, one of the major health risks posed by
nuclear accidents is radioactive iodide that dissolves into drinking
water. Because it is chemically identical to non-radioactive iodide, the
human body cannot distinguish it – which is what allows it to
accumulate in the thyroid and eventually lead to cancer," says Dr. Joel
Pawlak, associate professor of forest biomaterials. "The material that
we've developed binds iodide in water and traps it, which can then be
properly disposed of without risk to humans or the environment."

Technique could set new course for extracting uranium from seawater

December 17, 2015

An ultra-high-resolution
technique used for the first time to study polymer fibers that trap
uranium in seawater may cause researchers to rethink the best methods to
harvest this potential fuel for nuclear reactors.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-technique-uranium-seawater.html

-------------------------Some
people think that this technology could be useful, to cleanup excess
uranium, from ocean water. Many people still believe, that there are
still better sources of energy, than using uranium for energy.

--------------

We
even have the medical technology, to treat radiation sickness. This
technology could also become beneficial for cancer patients.

-----------

FDA ticks off first drug to treat radiation sickness after nuclear disasters

May 25, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/fda-drug-radiation-nuclear/37671/

----------------------

Metal foams could provide lightweight radiation shielding

July 22, 2015

Radiation generally comes under the heading of "things you want to stay
away from," so it's no surprise that radiation shielding is a high
priority in many industries. However, current shielding is bulky and
heavy, so a North Carolina State University team is developing a new
lightweight shielding based on foam metals that can block X-rays, gamma rays, and neutron radiation, as well as withstanding high-energy impact collisions.

University
of Texas at Austin physicists have been awarded a U.S. patent for an
invention that could someday be used to turn nuclear waste into fuel,
thus removing the most dangerous forms of waste from the fuel cycle.

The
researchers—Mike Kotschenreuther, Prashant Valanju and Swadesh Mahajan
of the College of Natural Sciences—have patented the concept for a novel
fusion-fission hybrid nuclear reactor that would use nuclear fusion and
fission together to incinerate nuclear waste. Fusion produces energy by
fusing atomic nuclei, and fission produces energy by splitting atomic
nuclei.

The process of burning the waste would also
produce energy. The researchers' goal is to eliminate 99 percent of the
most toxic transuranic waste from nuclear fission reactors.

"The
potential for this kind of technology is enormous," said Mahajan,
professor of physics. "Now that we have the patent, we hope this will
open up opportunities to engage with the research and development
community to further this potentially world-changing technology."

The
researchers' patent covers a tokamak device, which uses magnetic fields
to produce fusion reactions. The patented tokamak is surrounded by an
area that would house a nuclear waste fuel source and waste by-products
of the nuclear fuel cycle. The device is driven by a transformational
technology called the Super X Divertor.

The Super X
Divertor is a crucial technology that has the capacity to safely divert
the enormous amounts of heat out of the reactor core to keep the reactor
producing energy.

Toxic nuclear waste is stored at
sites around the U.S., and the need to store nuclear waste is widely
considered to be a major disadvantage associated with nuclear energy.

The
physicists' invention could someday drastically decrease the need for
any additional or expanded geological repositories, making nuclear power
cleaner and more viable.

The patented hybrid reactor is currently in a conceptual phase.

The
Super X Divertor, however, is being installed as the centerpiece of a
$40 million upgrade of the MAST tokamak in the United Kingdom. This
installation is a critical step forward in testing the Super X Divertor
experimentally. It is not covered by the U.S. patent but is the
technology invented by the University of Texas at Austin physicists.

Should
Iran be allowed to have nuclear energy, including uranium?
Should other counties still be allowed to use uranium for fuel? The
answer, is that we need to stop using uranium, and switch over to other alternative sources of energy. We can
also see the problems, with research in making and experimenting with
uranium weapons. This is why so many people are concerned about
projects, such as using uranium, in experiments being done with CERN. We will go into detail about CERN, in our next book " Energy Science 101 - http://energyscience101.blogspot.com/. "

-----------------------

We have the technology to use good biopolymers and bioplastics.We have the technology to make organic computing crystals for computers.We can make non-toxic fibers, alloys, paints, dyes and lubricants.We can make and grow our food to be non-toxic, and sustainable as well.We could make all parts of a vehicle, including the energy used in a vehicle, to be sustainable for the environment.Some people question many of the practices used
in current mining techniques, for mining metals and alloys. This is why
some people think that plant based materials, or different materials
such as silicone, could be more environmentally friendly for fibers. This may be more sustainable, than
mass-producing and mining for certain types of metals, including rare
metals. We need to properly recycle and reuse, the metals and alloys, that have already been produced on this planet. However, there will always be a need for new scientific experiments with rare metals and minerals.

------------------

Some have even mentioned the use of genetically modified plants and
bacteria, that could act as solar energy harvesters. We have already
seen many unsafe experiments, with genetically modified organisms.This includes the use of genetically modified organisms, that can survive in outer space.